In Mississippi: 15-Year Jail Sentence For Selling Pirated Movies and Music

New submitter patella.whack writes "A guilty plea for six counts of selling counterfeit media gets a defendant 15 years in Mississippi. An undercover reporter from the Attorney General's Intellectual Property Theft Task Force managed to buy a total of five copied movies and one music CD from the defendant, who had 10,500 pirated discs at home and two prior convictions: one for assaulting a police officer 17 years ago and one for CD piracy that got him a year under house arrest. Says the RIAA: '[This] highlights the fact that the individuals engaging in these activities are frequently serial criminals for whom IP theft is simply the most convenient and profitable way they could steal from others.' Frequently serial criminals? 15 years? I wonder how much of his sentence can be attributed to his priors rather than to other factors."

Comments

3 strikes and he's out

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe this career criminal should have stuck to misdemeanors like bank robbery and murder; he would have received an easier sentence.

Re:3 strikes and he's out

[ljaszcza]

Actually, he should have gotten a job with one of the big banks. Goldman Sachs or such. Lighter sentence yet. Rob a liquor store, get 20 years. Rob 20,000 people of $200,000 in life savings, the feds don't have a case to pursue.

Re:3 strikes and he's out

[Anonymous Coward]

The average penalty for rape in the U.S. is 11.8 years. OP's specifics may be wrong, but the idea's the same.

Re:3 strikes and he's out

[icebike]

Easier sentence for murder? You realize that Federal punishment for second-degree murder is mandatory life imprisonment and first-degree is the death penalty or life imprisonment? Exaggerate much?

Federal penalties for murder seldom apply unless you cross a state line to commit same, or kill a mailman, and not even then in most cases.
Its a state charge, and many liberal states have you out on the street in less than 20 years, much less if their prisons are overcrowded.
(Don't even get me started on time off fir good behavior).

New York, Albany EDU did a study(pdf-2006) and found that 20 years (244 months) is the Average maximum sentence imposed by state courts in the US for Murder and Non-Negligent manslaughter.

Federal District courts in 2004 sentenced people to an average maximum of 111.2 months.
Post sentence guideline reform the federal average has increased to the state average, and then some. Figures for 2010 show an average of 23 years handed down by federal district courts.

So I don't know where you get that mandatory Life death penalty nonsense.

Re:3 strikes and he's out

[Jane Q. Public]

Well, hey... at least it's a story about actual piracy in the legal sense, rather than just uploading or downloading.

Re:3 strikes and he's out

[hazem]

No one said he was smart. Assault of a police officer takes real brains...

Actually, it doesn't take much to be charged with assault of a police officer. Say you're being arrested and they twirl you around to put the cuffs on you and you stumble into one of them. You've now committed assault if the officer feels like charging you with it.

Want to take it to court? It will be you, a scumbag defendant, vs. that upstanding officer and defender of the public in his sharp uniform, with a jury that's been purged of anyone capable of critical thought.

Re:3 strikes and he's out

[Taco Cowboy]

If you assault a police officer, YOU'RE GUILTY. PERIOD.

If the police officer said that you assaulted him , YOU'RE GUILTY. PERIOD.
 
Ftfy.

Re:3 strikes and he's out

[0111 1110]

Every story without direct video footage starts with trust. I was actually charged with assaulting a police officer. In the presence of 20-30 other cops. I'm just a shy, geeky, overweight, middle aged guy. I'm also extremely non-violent. The cop in question was much larger than me as well. Anyone who knows me knows that such an accusation is utterly ridiculous.

Some people have yet to realize what real cops are actually like. This is solely due to lack of contact with them. They will not hesitate to lie in court and to falsely accuse you of many things. None of the defense attorneys I consulted were at all surprised by my story. They see it all the time. The cops commonly do such things because they can. The system lets them get away with it. They are just grown up schoolyard bullies. Sociopaths with unlimited power and not even a hint of a conscience.

Just a bit of friendly advice for everyone: If a cop swears at you DO NOT swear back at them under any circumstances. It may seem fair, but the cop won't see it that way. You'll be lucky if you only end up in the hospital with broken bones. You may end up with brain damage. You may end up dead or in prison for many years based on false accusations.

No matter what you say or how much more plausible your version of events may seem or how incredibly stupid the cop is nearly every judge and many juries will believe the cop's ridiculous story just because he is a cop. Many defendents aren't willing to roll the dice and take deals. That's what I did. I could poke holes in some details of the cop's bullshit story and prove those holes 100%. Prove that he lied in some details, but I could not prove my innocence. I could not prove that I did not punch him. And I didn't trust a potential lily white jury with no exposure to real life cops to decide my fate. Like you, they don't want to believe that such things really happen. So they don't. Real cops are nothing like the way they are portrayed on TV or in films. Well maybe Bad Lieutenant.

Re:3 strikes and he's out

[blade8086]

The kind of thing where a repeat, professional, career criminal (aka 'organized criminal') is awarded a tough sentence for manufacturing large amounts of illegal counterfit goods for resale aka establishing his own 'criminal enterprise' ?

What exactly is the problem here?

Yes, I agree that some aspects of copyright law are rediculous - but this case, no.

Re:3 strikes and he's out

[xenobyte]

Actual piracy? - Where's the peg leg, the parrot and the ship?

Three Strikes Laws

[Anonymous Coward]

These laws are dumb as shit since they make the judge irrelevant, as it takes away the courts power to hand down an appropriate sentence.

Mississippi is a three strikes state. So this is another "20 years for jaywalking" piece of nonsense.

Re:Three Strikes Laws

[amiga3D]

I gotta say that if you already were busted once for selling pirate media you should be aware they're out to get you. I think it's harsh but I can't feel sorry for him. It's not like he was using it for his own viewing, he was selling it for income.

Re:Three Strikes Laws

[Hatta]

Three strikes laws should be thrown out as unconstitutional. If you've done your time for the first two strikes, then you've done your time. Any additional punishment for those crimes falls afoul of double jeopardy.

Yet another misleading headline.

[Nutria]

It's not selling pirated movies, it's selling pirated movies on an industrial scale, which is *completely* different from sharing a dozen MP3s.

However...

[mcgrew]

I RTFA this morning. This isn't Joe Blow getting a few movies from the pirate bay, this is a counterfeiter. Copyright infringement isn't theft, but I'd say this is, as the criminal is getting the money that should have gone to the movies' producers.

Also, the guy was imprisoned for the very same offence before, as well as going to prison for some violent crimes.

This isn't Joe Nerd getting fifteen years for sharing movies, it's Joe Beentoprison making money off of someone else's work.

Michael Jackson?

[Frederic54]

Let's say...
Sell a CD copy of Michael Jackson : 15 years in jail
Kill Michael Jackson : 4 years in jail

makes sense...