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From File-Sharing To Prison: The Story of a Jailed Megaupload Programmer (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: "I had to be made an example of as a warning to all IT people," says former Megaupload programmer Andrew Nomm, one of seven Megaupload employees arrested in 2012. Friday his recent interview with an Estonian journalist was republished in English by Ars Technica (which notes that at one point the 50 million users on Megaupload's file-sharing site created 4% of the world's internet traffic). The 37-year-old programmer pleaded guilty to felony copyright infringement in exchange for a one-year-and-one-day sentence in a U.S. federal prison, which the U.S. Attorney General's office called "a significant step forward in the largest criminal copyright case in US history."
"It turned out that I was the only defendant in the last 29 years to voluntarily go from the Netherlands to the USA..." Nomm tells the interviewer, adding "I'll never get back the $40,000 that was seized by the USA." He describes his experience in the U.S. prison system after saying good-bye to his wife and 13-year-old son, adding that now "I have less trust in all sorts of state affairs, especially big countries. I saw the dark side of the American dream in all its glory..."
In U.S. court documents Nomm "acknowledged" that the financial harm to copyright holders "exceeded $400 million."
"It turned out that I was the only defendant in the last 29 years to voluntarily go from the Netherlands to the USA..." Nomm tells the interviewer, adding "I'll never get back the $40,000 that was seized by the USA." He describes his experience in the U.S. prison system after saying good-bye to his wife and 13-year-old son, adding that now "I have less trust in all sorts of state affairs, especially big countries. I saw the dark side of the American dream in all its glory..."
In U.S. court documents Nomm "acknowledged" that the financial harm to copyright holders "exceeded $400 million."
The USA sees its future in intellectual property. Non-tangible goods. With that directive the pendulum is swinging towards the absurd side right now. Eventually, say 10 to 15 years or so - government time, it'll swing back to a sane-middle.
Shh.
Large-scale copyright infringement is a felony in many countries, and we got our current draconian copyright system in large part at the urging of European publishers. Copyright law is still more permissive in the US than elsewhere. References to the US or the "American Dream" are utterly gratuitous.
Someone seems to be criminally naive.
I don't either. Your point being?
sick of this authoritarian shithole
He pleaded guilty for a reduced sentence. If he'd fought the charges he faced up to 55 years in prison. That's how they get you. They throw every charge at you that they can, so you don't ever dare fight back and instead accept their lesser mercy so they can use you as an example for the next person they target.
It's no wonder he "acknowledged" $400 million in harm. If I was faced with the rest of my life in prison and they demanded I acknowledge that Bigfoot is costing hunters billions of lost dollars in revenue every year, I'd be shouting condemnation at that damn Bigfoot too.