Man jailed for file sharing
p2p news / p2pnet: Hollywood has triumphed. A Hong Kong man has been sentenced to three months in jail for copyright infringement, or copyright violation, as the Associated Press phrases it.
The news is reverberating around the world, which is exactly what the Big Seven studios, Walt Disney Company; Sony Pictures Entertainment; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios; Paramount Pictures; Twentieth Century Fox; Universal City Studios; and, Warner Bros Entertainment Inc, are aiming for.
It remains for the same thing to happen in the US where 19-year-old Curtis Salisbury is looking at up to 17 years in jail and a possible $250,000 fine for doing the same thing. The US Justice Department says Salisbury secretly camcorded a movie, bringing him under Hollywood’s Family and Entertainment Copyright Act, fronted by Lamar Smith.
AP says in Hong Kong, BitTorrent user Chan Nai-ming, 38, was sentenced to three months in prison, “for illegally uploading the Hollywood films ‘Daredevil,’ ‘Red Planet’ and ‘Miss Congeniality,’ onto a Web site so that others could obtain them, said Judiciary spokesman Mackenzie Mak”.
Chan was found guilty last month of three counts of attempting to distribute copyrighted material without authorisation, says the story, adding:
“The magistrate who convicted him said his act greatly hurt the interest of the copyrighted material’s owner although he did not make any profit from uploading the movies onto the Internet.”
Having set a precedent, expect to soon see someone thrown into jail for sharing music online.
At the behest of the Big Four record labels, Communist China recently announced the creation of RIAA clone the P2P APA (P2P Application Promotion Alliance).
Meanwhile, Hollywood is close to adopting BT for its own purposes.
Stay tuned.
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See:-
Associated Press – Hong Kong man jailed for sharing movies online, November 7, 2005
17 years in jail – Lamar Smith crows over victory, October 3, 2005
P2P APA – China enlists US ‘p2p’ help, November 4, 2005
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November 7th, 2005 at 2:43 pm
17 years in jail? How much time would somebody guilty of armed robbery get?
November 7th, 2005 at 3:29 pm
Hopefully, the government of the P.S.A. will fall within a few years. By the way, a local armed bank robber got less than eight years in prison. Many paedophiles get even less. I HATE the political system in the P.S.A. (Ploice States of America). I wouldn’t feel a bit bad if most of the judges and politicians in the P.S.A. were hung, shot, or tarred and feathered so long as they are replaced by people who actually respect and obey the Constitution to the best of their knowlege.
If anyone reading this gets a jury summons, please visit http://www.fija.org to learn about just how much say you actually have in a trial.
November 7th, 2005 at 3:35 pm
Sharing music files is clearly on a par with genocide, and should theefore warrant such large sentences – there are millions of people being evicted from their houses, thousands of children starving to near death because of selfish file-sharers willfully stealing copyrighted material!
November 7th, 2005 at 5:38 pm
“19-year-old Curtis Salisbury is looking at up to 17 years in jail and a possible $250,000 fine for doing the same thing.”
It’sabout time that lawyers and legislators be forced to read the American Constitution. It prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment”,
If before the “Family and Entertainment Copyright Act” the ususual punishment for using a legally purchased camera was none, then any punishment for using a camera is unusual by definition.
Family and Entertainment Copyright Act, what a beautiful and friendly name. “The Gestapo Copyright Act” would have been more descriptive and accurate.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
November 7th, 2005 at 6:09 pm
Indeed, it was his camera to do what he wanted with. Also, I’ve never understood why the MPAA are so frightened of people purchasing really poor-quality cam versions of films. Surely it’s a tax on the stupid – for not much more you can actually go and watch the original, so why on earth would you want some camcorder crap?
And as for the unusual punishment thing, it has to be pointed out it’s usually cited as a deterant, but then frightening innocent consumers into not touching their IP is what the MPAA is all about.
November 7th, 2005 at 11:40 pm
(Weapons of Mass Downloading) yep really doing Hollyweird in….best year in history.