Guy who ran movie sharing ring sentenced to, eh, nothing really..

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051020/ap_en_mo/online_piracy

Not exactly the end of the world.. As long as he doesn't break the law again he can still do everything he used to do.. And if he does break the law again he MIGHT have to spend 180 days in Jail.

The story is a bit light on details so maybe he wasn't sharing that much stuff but to my mind it's still a very light penalty over all and if I was sitting at home thinking about setting up a file sharing hub of some sort this story as it stands wouldn't put me off sharing movies files at all.

 

Just wait till the RIAA drops a billion dollar civil suit on his ass. You can't bankrupt your way out of that.

 

A felony conviction and hard time for swapping movies and music? Come on....

Nobody deserves that. Who hasn't put a tape in the VCR and recorded a movie from tv and let a friend watch it? Who hasn't put a cassette tape in a tape player and recorded a song form the radio and let someone else listen to it...

The music and movie industry is whining because they're zillion dollar per year profits are slowing down now that you can actually hear a CD before you buy it and find out what complete trash it really is.

The music industry has a formula .

1 or 2 catchy pop songs + 10 filler junk songs = $17.99 CD ... a rip off at best.

Don't get me wrong.. I'm not saying file swapping and all that is moral or right... I'm just saying it's not the end of the world and it's not something people should be doing jail time for or having felonies that will ruin there lives...

 

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of the music\movie industry either and at least this guy wasn't selling movies to make a profit, but at the same time there does need to be a penalty.

I think the misdemeanor and suspended sentence are actually reasonable enough but some sort of a fine and community service would have been applicable here.

As it stands he hasn't had to pay a fine, he can still use a computer for "personal use" and just has to behave himself. To my mind if that's the punishment then some people might think, what the hell, I might as well just share my movies online.

 

Well considering there have been hundreds (maybe thousands now?) of lawsuits filed by the RIAA to individuals sharing music that are settled for around $3,000 average each... I think that would be enough to deter someone from sharing

 

Yeah that's fair enough.. Still I feel that if someone breaks the law then the legal system should be able to dole out a punishment rather than the music industry.

I'd rather see the 3K being paid in a fine that goes to a government fund for supporting the arts than into the black hole that is the RIAA

Then again the RIAA can probably still bring a legal action afterwards.. Hmmmm

 

I think my tax dollars could go to better use than fining people sharing music. Like solving the 16,137 MURDERS, 94,635 RAPES A YEAR IN USA or fixing our insanely high national deficit....

 

Hey Don't get me wrong, I hate to tell you this but your country is seriously fupped up!

Everytime the Irish political landscape gets me down I just log on to some American news sites and thing at least it isn't THAT bad..

America seems to be a country of extremes to my mind. In some ways it's an amazing place but in others it's just so off the wall.

 

Another reason I love Canada. I can leech till my HDD explodes without even having a second thought about worrying. It is definatly a waste of tax dollars.

Sure RIAA has the right to protect it's products. However, I really don't see what they are thinking.

They know they can't do jack shit about the file-sharing and distribution over the net because its beyond anybody's power. So they have to resort to try and put a scare over the media with their silly lawsuits. Why are they trying to hunt people down who downloads music, whats that going to accomplish? Those who get the stuff for free will never buy it!