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Czech Judge Cuts Deal With Software Pirate: Get 200K YouTube Views Or Pay Huge Fine
An anonymous reader writes: A judge allowed a software pirate to make a anti-piracy PSA and get away from paying a $373,000 / €351,000 fine he owed Microsoft and other software manufacturers. The only condition was that his video should get over 200,000 views on YouTube.
From the BBC's coverage of the trial's unusual outcome: [The defendant, known only as Jakub F] came to the out-of-court settlement with a host of firms whose software he pirated after being convicted by a Czech court. In return, they agreed not to sue him. ... The firms, which included Microsoft, HBO Europe, Sony Music and Twentieth Century Fox, estimated that the financial damage amounted to 5.7m Czech Crowns (£148,000). But the Business Software Alliance (BSA), which represented Microsoft, acknowledged that Jakub could not pay that sum. Instead, the companies said they would be happy to receive only a small payment and his co-operation in the production of the video.
In order for the firms' promise not to sue to be valid, they said, the video would have to be viewed at least 200,000 times within two months of its publication this week. ...
But, if the video did not reach the target, the spokesman said that — "in theory" — the firms would have grounds to bring a civil case for damages."
And thus he is probably fine.
but not fined.
Right.
Just don't use proprietary software. Simple as that, no legal risk.
I don't want Windows or Office or that Adobe thingy, not even if its for free as in money.
http://www.bbc.com/news/techno...
TFS's link is broken.
The going rate for YouTube Views on Fiverr is around $5 per 3000.
Why enslave him instead?
:)
What? Viewing the video, of course. 175,480 and counting.
I have a hunch something like this will easily go viral and easily get the 200k views in a matter of days.
I'm pretty sure the 20,000 will be done, by the end of the business day it is already at: 175,480 views. Slashdot effect alone is 25000 easily
This is mostly a fake story fabricated by the local anti-piracy organizations.
The judge has nothing to do with it - the guy was sentenced and released on parole, with no damages granted - the associations were referred to civil legal proceedings, and *one* of the associations made an out-of-court settlement offer to the guy. They'll make a viral video about him and the association will not sue.
The $373,000 are damages that would be claimed by the association, but these damages are typically grossly overestimated and only fractions of the claims are granted by Czech courts. The judges usually require detailed analysis of the damages to get convinced what to grant.
Skilled news spinning, in short.
It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the end. -Douglas Adams
This is a PR campaign orchestrated by BSA (Business Software Aliance), see this article (in czech, google translated) https://translate.google.com/t... It's not right to pirate software but it's also not right to lie, shame on you, BSA.
Ha, nice try to pad your video views Jakub!
You're better off heading over to reddit through, /. doesn't have the numbers it once did.
How will not getting 200,000 views enable him to be more able to pay the amount he is said to owe, exactly? If the whole point of cooperating with them and making the video was to reduce his damages, apparently on the basis that he supposedly would not be able to afford the damages in the first place, it seems entirely pointless to threaten to come back and sue him for just as much if it doesn't reach a particular view count.
That said, this story is probably high-profile enough that he will probably get the requisite number of views anyway.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
As a legal tactic.... brilliant!
Oldie but still my favorite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9rT1RHhAQ RIAA PSA Commercial
I think the only thing stopping the copyright regimes from doing that for real is they're still trying to get the legislation passed via their paid congress ppl.
(:
I still think that the original video was much better.
His view count seems to be stuck at 194130 views for the past few minutes. Doesn't YouTube update the view count every minute or so?
Locking them up in the stocks and publically humuliating them.
Isn't there a law against that kind of thing :)
Publishers often refer to copying they don't approve of as "piracy." In this way, they imply that it is ethically equivalent to attacking ships on the high seas, kidnapping and murdering the people on them. Based on such propaganda, they have procured laws in most of the world to forbid copying in most (or sometimes all) circumstances. (They are still pressuring to make these prohibitions more complete.)
If you don't believe that copying not approved by the publisher is just like kidnapping and murder, you might prefer not to use the word "piracy" to describe it. Neutral terms such as "unauthorized copying" (or "prohibited copying" for the situation where it is illegal) are available for use instead.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy...
the video would have to be viewed at least 200,000 times within two months of its publication this week.
How about robotically-generated views from numerous cloud instances temporarily stood up for the purpose of generating simulated views?
Well - that was simple. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKjPutIlBCA)
Grats dude. Glad the companies were reasonable and something could be worked out. Happy to help.
The financial damage equalled 148,000.00 GBP = 223,493.93 USD but he 'owed' these companies $373, 000 ? Huh?
Anyone feel like using their botnet to 'view' the video (exactly) 200,000 times?
Requiem for the American Dream
I missed a few words, but as best as I can make out, it's this:
--------
My name is Jacob
Just a few hours ago I was on the same side of the monitor as you
You can't begin to suspect how easy it to get here
here where the virtual world of 1s and 0s gets an all too real shape
Ctrl-C Ctrl-V continually
I was in communication of people who made warez, I spread illegal computer programs, but I did not feel like I was doing anything illegal
We took from wealthy firms and ???? (TN: did not catch this part)
I did it for 8 years and amassed 10s of gigabytes of data and was glad that people world wide appreciated it
But then it happened
Despite that warez is done by many groups around the world, the scent caught by investigators was mine
I received my first ??? (TN: I assume the word is "summons" - not that familiar with legal Czech)
And then another
and another
The police came for me even to work
The criminal complaint, lawyers, hears, court.
Papers and more papers
There was no end
All revolved around the damages I caused, and that I must recompense
The makers of the software enumerated the damaged of almost 6 million Crowns.
Such a sum, I'll be paying out of my income for the rest of my life.
I will be able to recompense out of court, if you spread my story
Maybe I shared something even to you just now
Help me reach 200,000 views
With sharing it started, with sharing it can end
www.mojepiratsvki.cz
If it helps the poor guy avoid huge legal bills, I'll still give him a view even though I don't understand a single word of this video.
Anyone got SRTs? I don't speak Czech.
What a joke. How many of the 304,033 viewers could understand a word of his anti-piracy argument? How many were just supporting a fellow pirate?
I hope he has ads set up with youtube. I'd love for him to make a few thousand dollars and cover his defense costs.
For years I told my niece I was a pirate with a straight face. You should have seen the look on her face when she realized I wasn't lying. Don't take that away from me :).
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
This is probably a stunt to get more viewers so he gets ad money. Most likely fake.
Can someone seed this video?
..Go back to "Before It's News" MR Factory farms .. We don't prefer the Moo Cow here!
I think you are forgetting that some people LIKE youtube.Not saying that I do,I go with YOUR idea
Someone should send a DMCA Takedown request to the video & see if Sony and Fox appreciate the same tactics they've been using against lawful videos.