Michael Chicoine of Texas and William Trowbridge of New York have been convicted on piracy charges for operating the Direct Connect peer-to-peer network's central hubs. This network was invitation only. Users had to share between 1-100 GB of files.
The two men convicted in "Operation Digital Gridlock" could get fines of up to $250,000 and prison sentences of up to five years. They were charged by the Department of Justice last August and sentencing will be on April 29th.
The charge was one count of conspiracy to commit felony copyright infringement. Both men pleaded guilty to this. Five homes and one firm was raided during the operation. The FBI downloaded 84 movies, 178 music files, 13 games and 40 programs.
Get busted for this, or for him to be held liable.
"Opps"
This is bollock, and about as legitimate as any other war on the American people.
There are tens of millions of unused licenses to the medias being played in the hands of registered owners; they ARE transferable, provided they are not commcerially resold, in many cases.
And they are LOANABLE, above all else...
Christ, this system is so glutenous and corrupt, it deserves a kick in the teeth.
Anyone have an anti-RIAA virus in the works?
Please; deploy it with the well-wishes of the World as hands patting you on the back for your efforts.
they are funding terrorism! Perhaps Osama himself!
I agree verboten. The RIAA (and now MPAA) needs some reckoning with and it doesn't look like the government is willing to do anything to stop their selfgiven omnipotence. Gotta wonder if this network was invitation only how the feds were able to get on it. Since they had to share stuff too apparently... How come they can do it? <- rhetorical question
licenses for software use are LOANABLE?? Just where did you come up with that crap? Seriously dude, you're so far out on the fringe you're giving Libertarians a bad name.
This wasn't just music and movies, these were computer applications and games.. I'm all for the sharing of music, and even trial usage of software, and you can legitimately explain sharing music files, but there is no way that you can explain sharing full registered versions of software - except piracy.
The jokers got caught, they plea-bargained down to lesser charges. The Feds are happy, they can show that they're doing something, the two felons are happy, they got off relatively scot-free and now anyone who uses pirated software has to consider looking over their shoulder.
I don't agree with the obscene pricing of software, but stealing it is not the answer. I object to the RIAA's stance on music files, not because I support that people are stealing the music, but because the record companies charge too much for crappy music, and there's quite often no way to listen to the songs on a CD to determine if it's worth spending money on.
Alot of software piracy is things that would never be bought because of the expense or it is not that needed. Good example is 3dmax 7, it cost $800us or if you want it bundled with decent animation software $3,500 now i wanted to dabble in 3d so i got the trail version but then i found a nice bit of FREE software that does almost the same job called blender. THe point is most regular people would never by photoshop, 3dmax, character studio , maya all those things that professionals use and therefore have huge prices. Now there is no easy solution as few people would buy it even if the prices were dropped but just think about it when people say huge numbers for estimated priacy damage.
The American economy would grind to a screeching halt. I would estimate, from my obsevations, that 80 percent of graphic design is done on pirated-software-- we would have no experts to produce 3D animation, or PDF files that the government is so fond of producing, web-sites would vanish.... all that stuff. Hell-- even pirated copies of Windows, etc.
Can the US Government stop piracy in Europe or Asia? It's RAMPANT! Nobody pays for that stuff. Photoshop, Maya, etc...? fergit it. There are people walking into restaraunts and cafes here that'll sell you music CDs with the booklets for a third of the price or less that you would pay for in the states...
People who make a living doing graphic design and 3D modelling have legitimate copies of the software.
Obliterating Internet piracy would have no ill effect on the economy -people bought games and software and music before the Internet and P2P, and they'll buy it again if you take P2P away.
Speaking as a programmer myself, with firends who are in the graphic design and 3D modelling fields, piracy (and pirates) make me sick to my stomach.
Try earning a living based solely on the products you create, while people refuse to pay you for it even though they use it. There's a word for benefitting from somebody's work without reimbursing them: slavery.
I p2p tv shows if they're not on sky first(quite often) or if i miss an episode. Sometimes films if I'm not sure wether i want to see it or not, and games before i buy them.
Then stuff that effectivly unavailable anymore.
Saying, well I wouldnt have bought it anyway is no excuse, some one who steals your car wouldnt have bought it if it was harder to break into.
I would have to disagree with your view that programmers, graphic designers, other electronic artists don't use 'pirated' software. I have seen many examples online. Not to mention that studies done have shown something like 80% of businesses have some people using 'pirated' software. I don't know how true that study is but I'm sure even if a fraction of it held true then that would be a LOT.
Comparing yourself to a slave only shows how very obtuse you really are. You live nothing like a slave, you are treated nothing like a slave, and slaves wouldn't be able to read a message board let alone post on one. Slaves receive low to no pay AT ALL and are generally OWNED by someone. Are you saying you don't make any money Yare? Who is your owner Yare?
