Bit torrent file sharer jailed

[Ramrod]

A Hong Kong man has been jailed for three months for film piracy after he shared movie files over the internet....Chan, an unemployed man who called himself "Big Crook", was arrested in January for uploading three Hollywood movies - Daredevil, Red Planet and Miss Congeniality - onto the internet without a licence.

He was using a popular file-sharing program called BitTorrent

link

[Halcyon]

Serves him right !

[bopdude]

Originally Posted by Ramrod

link

ouch still 3 months, maybe he made enough to bribe the judge lol

Originally Posted by Halcyon

Serves him right !

So you can raise your hand and say you've never d/led an illegal file..... can you, no mp3 or picture copyright ??????

[Gareth]

nor photocopied any copywritten material, nor lent any film or music to a friend, etc...

[andygrif]

Originally Posted by bopdude

ouch still 3 months, maybe he made enough to bribe the judge lol

How would he have made money from "sharing" over the internet?

Originally Posted by bopdude

So you can raise your hand and say you've never d/led an illegal file..... can you, no mp3 or picture copyright ??????

I'm sick of this being used as an argument by people who want to justify their own illegal downloading against people who come out and say that it's wrong. It's a weak argument and largely irrelivant to the discussion. There's a huge difference between downloading a picture from the internet and letting tens of thousands of people download an entire hollywood movie from your hard-drive - which is exactly why he was prosecuted.

[bopdude]

Originally Posted by andygrif

How would he have made money from "sharing" over the internet?

well it would seem obvious that the next step would be to put them onto disk and make money

Originally Posted by andygrif

I'm sick of this being used as an argument by people who want to justify their own illegal downloading against people who come out and say that it's wrong. It's a weak argument and largely irrelivant to the discussion. There's a huge difference between downloading a picture from the internet and letting tens of thousands of people download an entire hollywood movie from your hard-drive - which is exactly why he was prosecuted.

No he wasn't, he was prosecuted for uploading three ( 3 ) films. And what difference does it make what I do or do not do, theft is theft whether it be downloading off the internet or as someone has said, lending a film to a mate to watch. Now get off ya high horse

Originally Posted by andygrif

It's a weak argument and largely irrelivant to the discussion.

And as for being relevent to the disscusion, where do your comments fit into a thread that was all of a half dozen posts ??

Calm down before you start, or this thread will meet a swift end.

[andygrif]

Originally Posted by bopdude

well it would seem obvious that the next step would be to put them onto disk and make money

It certainly didn't mention in the news story that this is what he did - so I assume on that basis that he did not. You're accusing him of something he probably didn't do, which is a bit unfair.

Originally Posted by bopdude

No he wasn't, he was prosecuted for uploading three ( 3 ) films.

I think we're saying the same thing. He let people download movies from his hard drive - as such, and becuase of the nature of Bittorrent, tens of thousands of people could download a file on his computer...in fact it is very likely (assuming he ripped the movies in the first place) that his files are still circulating around the net even now.

Originally Posted by bopdude

And what difference does it make what I do or do not do, theft is theft whether it be downloading off the internet or as someone has said, lending a film to a mate to watch. Now get off ya high horse

So what difference does it make if someone commenting on this thread has downloaded an image or an MP3 either? Why bring it up?

I know you're not the only person using that argument, but it does irritate me that this should be used as a weapon to attempt to silence someone who speaks out against piracy and copyright theft.

There is a world of difference between making tens of thousands of copies of a film available via Bittorrent and photocopying a page froma book, for example...

...just like the world of difference between stealing a pen from work and stealing a Van Gough masterpeice.

[Ramrod]

Even though he was prosecuted for downloading 3 films, those probably made up the the 'test case' and the tip of the iceberg in his case.
__________________

I posted this thread not so we could argue the moral and legal niceties of filesharing but so that we could examine the likelyhood of such cases being brought in this country.......
...........because a lot of people here probably have evaluation copies of software and films obtained via bit torrent

[bopdude]

Originally Posted by Ramrod

Even though he was prosecuted for downloading 3 films, those probably made up the the 'test case' and the tip of the iceberg in his case.
__________________

I posted this thread not so we could argue the moral and legal niceties of filesharing but so that we could examine the likelyhood of such cases being brought in this country.......
...........because a lot of people here probably have evaluation copies of software and films obtained via bit torrent

Yeah mate, I know, I was just making a tounge in cheek comment when someone else jumped in guns blazing, I'll back away from this one and go steal something

[andygrif]

There's no need to be nasty Bopdude - I'm quite happy to have the discussion...but when someone says that I can't put my point of view forward becuase...

So you can raise your hand and say you've never d/led an illegal file..... can you, no mp3 or picture copyright ??????

...you can expect to be drawn up on that.