DrinkorDie Griffiths gets 51 months
p2pnet.net news:- The US Justice Department is bragging about the lengthy sentence it’s imposed on ex-DrinkorDie member Hew Raymond Griffiths.
The bitter and relentless US effort to have British-born Griffiths extradited from Australia to the US was, “another step towards an American legal system bought and paid for interest groups who get what they want, when they want, with no thought of whether the punishment fits the crime,” said an Internet Scout Project post in 2004.
He recently has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, and another of criminal copyright infringement.
Bandido, as Griffiths was known, was sentenced to 51 months in prison, says a DoJ statement.
DoD, “was dismantled by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of Operation Buccaneer in December 2001, with more than 70 raids conducted in the US, the United Kingdom, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Australia,” says the Brisbane Times.
“To date, Operation Buccaneer has resulted in more than 30 felony convictions in the United States and 11 convictions of foreign nationals overseas.”
Also See:
pleaded guilty – DrinkorDie Griffiths faces jail, February 23, 2007
DoJ statement – BBC Reporter Shown in New Video, June 25, 2007
Brisbane Times – Aussie internet pirate jailed in US, June 24, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php | | And use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site
Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
June 25th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Whatever hapenned to equal treatment under the law?
RIAA member Sonolux had in the american market over 20 cds with songs whose copyright we own, all unlicensed.
When we detected this massive copyright infringement by a respectably sized record label in the world wide hispanic market, it was many years after this compnay had introduced the records into the market. Many millions of records had been sold in over 25 years.
We detected the massive scam on on about 1997 and finally got to sue Sonolux in 2001. Sonolux defaulted by not answering the lawsuit. In default we obtained a 1.6 million dollar sentence, only to have Sonolux show up in court to request a reduction in the sentence. which the court readily gave Sonolux got a reduction to 300,000 dollars, less than half the royalties they saved by never paying any royalties.
Then they disappeared without paying any of the sentence money but they continue to do business in the USA. In the USA, the record company was run by the son of the record company owner, the wealthiest man in Colombia, a friend of the president of Colombia.
These Sonolux people, the Ardila Lülle family, come and go into the USA and are not even detained or questioned about the non payment of a judgement or their continuing infringements…. yes, the records are still being sold online by american distributors. Their television production named Uggly Betty was recently a big hit on Amereican Television.
Is it that the wealthy is favored? As I said the violator is the wealthiest man in Colombia. Is it that Griffiths os not wealthy?
BTW, Antonio Ardila said in court, to justify the non appearance, that he thought some else had had answered the lawsuit for Sonolux. The court told him that that was unbeliebable but did nothing more about it, other than favoring Sonolux in the requested reduction.
So, whatever hapenned to equal treatment under the law?
Really, Iam at a loss of how american justice work crime, or is it doesnt work?
Rafael Venegas
gvenegas.com