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5-Year Suspended Sentence For S. Africa's First Online Pirate

Posted by timothy on from the comparative-justice dept.

An anonymous reader writes "South Africa's first prosecution for online piracy was concluded this morning, with a five-year, wholly suspended sentence handed down to a filesharer who uploaded local movie Four Corners to The Pirate Bay. The man — who lost his job recently — said he's relieved by the verdict, which was the result of a plea bargain. Director Ian Gabriel, who made the film, recently said he was 'philosophical' about piracy."

1 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Go after the people who write the software by Himmy32 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You realize that P2P software is used for perfectly legit things besides the illegal. For example last night, one of the games that I pay for used Bittorrent to update itself. And last week I downloaded a ISO of open source OS via bittorrent.

    To get off the car analogy take lockpicks. Their purpose is to open something that is locked that you don't have a key for. Next time you lock your keys in your car, be glad that the government hasn't the lockpick manufacturers in jail.

    If anyone makes a tool, likely that tool is going to be used for something wrong. But you don't blame the tool or the makers of the tool, but the person who used it wrong.