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MegaUpload Programmer Pleads Guilty, Gets a Year In Prison
An anonymous reader writes When MegaUpload was shut down a few years back, seven of the company's employees were indicted by the U.S. We heard a lot about Kim Dotcom's court proceedings, but not much about the others. A few days ago, we received word that programmer Andrus Nomm has been arrested in Virginia. This came as a surprise to everyone involved. MegaUpload attorney Ira Rothken said it was likely Nomm had made a deal with the Feds. Now, we know for sure: Nomm has pleaded guilty to felony copyright infringement and was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. In a statement, the Department of Justice said they will continue to pursue his co-conspirators.
Isn't a programmer an employee doing what he is requested to do - and anyway making programmes does not infringe copyright laws. It seems everyone has to pay a price in this megaupload story, in order to send a strong and threatening message.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
I'd imagine he didn't have the money or patience to fight it and didn't want to set a precedence by losing in court.
So, someone hires you to work on a file sharing network. And this is conspiracy? I mean there was a time when "file sharing" was a legitimate thing to do and didn't automatically imply copyright infringement.
Even if it did, I doubt Kim Dotcom said "hey, how'd you like to join a conspiracy to enable copyright infringement?" I think it was more likely "I want to hire a database programmer"
I know it's kind of hip to say "well what do you expect?", but really this seems punitive vindictive and disproportionate.
I mean if this can happen when you write code in good faith for someone who used it for purposes later deemed illegal ... that kind of puts us all in the frame. I mean, corporate ethics being what they are and all that.
Damn.
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
Sure, blame the messenger instead of the sender. They may have create the service, but they aren't the ones who placed that copyrighted content there. They were even doing a relatively good job of removing copyrighted material.
By the logic of the US, all of Google employees should go to jail, considering how many copyrighted content there is on Youtube.
This is why nobody likes the US.
He didn't.
Before agreeing to leave to the US he was awaiting an extradition trial in a foreign country unable to leave and could not find work.
They don't care about him. They want him to roll on the others and provide them with enough evidence to convince foreign courts to extradite everyone to the US where they will get a "fair and balanced" hearing and then be sentenced to decades in prison as an example of how corporate money buys "justice" as well as votes.
It does not matter if the testimony of this person is a lie or even if it was extracted in a heavy handed way using everything but torture. All they need is the targets on US soil where justice means fuck all.
This is primarily all about getting access to Dotcom. The NZ legal system is kept at arms length from politics for a reason and THIS is a great example of that reason.
And it will still not be enough most likely once they fabricate the evidence...
Can be sure as shit that Kim isn't going to part with his money to defend him even if he didn't have his own case to worry about.
You are correct but not for the selfish reason you imply. Kim Dotcom's assets have been frozen so they were not available to defend this programmer. He is only being allowed money for living expenses and his own legal fees. You may hate Kim Dotcom but he is not stupid. It would have been in his own best interests to pay for this guy's defense (assuming that fact couldn't be use to malign the defendant).
We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
-- Anais Nin
Yeah, but life with a felony conviction is like being in a gulag without the State even having to spend money on you.
Isn't copyright infringement a civil offense?
Democracy my ass.
reminds me a lot of a guy who lives in NH. He was a pot dealer who was a member of a local political group that the feds wanted to keep tabs on. So what did they do? They offered a heroin dealer a wrist slap if he would help nail the pot dealer.
The pot dealer gets nabbed, and told he will be given a sweetheart deal if he spys on the policitcal group...he says no so they railroad the fuck out of him to make an example of what happens when you don't act like the sniveling peon you are.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
ROTFL you mean an underpaid, overworked public defender who doesn't barely have time to actually represent you? yah that works real well. Public defeders are barely adequet for a plea bargain most of the time. Shit a friend of mine had one and when he sat down with her she hadn't even bothered to look at his case.
This "justice system" is 99% scam jobs program
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
You plead guilty because in America we do jury trials, and juries are highly unpredictable. They often rule based on emotions and how they feel. If you're rich you buy a lawyer that's a smooth talker and can confuse the jury. Everyone else just plea bargins. Otherwise you're gambling that the jury will like you. If you lose the gamble than years of mandatory sentencing guidelines will put you away for decades.
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Same poster here...The police in NZ have lied their way through many court cases also.
My bro wanted to be one. Talked to 3 senior cops on holiday who were speaking freely.
They asked him why he wanted to be a cop.
He spouted some naive BS about justice and honesty.
They told him that he would be routinely be told to lie under oath by the brass and if he refused would be ostracized and bullied until he towed the line or quit.
And if he could not handle that, he should not bother applying.
He never bothered applying.