or not to be free.READ THIS.THIS RULING IS GOING TO HAVE A BIG EFFECT ON THE INTERNET


Internet Pirate Sentenced to Prison Time

Boston man will serve 33 months for distributing copyrighted content, including music and movies, from his employer's computer.

Linda Rosencrance, Computerworld
Wednesday, August 21, 2002

A 24-year-old member of DrinkOrDie, one of the oldest international piracy groups on the Internet, has been sentenced to 33 months in federal prison for conspiring to violate criminal copyright laws.

Christopher Tresco of Allston, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty in May in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia of using his employer's computers to distribute copyrighted material, including movies, software, games, and music, according to a U.S. Department of Justice statement.

Tresco faced up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. He is scheduled to surrender November 1 to begin serving his sentence.

"Chris made an error in judgment in getting involved in this activity and he has acknowledged to the court that he violated the law," says Tresco's Boston-based attorney Gary Crossen. "He hopes others will learn from him the lesson to avoid computer crimes and respect federal copyright laws."

Under Investigation
Tresco is one of 40 people worldwide targeted by Operation Buccaneer, a 14-month undercover investigation into copyright violations by the U.S. Customs Service. One of Tresco's co-conspirators pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges earlier this year and was sentenced to 46 months in prison.

Operation Buccaneer also netted members of other online piracy groups, including RiSC, RAZOR1911, RiSCISO, and POPZ. To date, 13 people have pleaded guilty to charges in connection with Operation Buccaneer; 10 have already been sentenced. Federal prosecutors said DrinkOrDie consisted of approximately 65 members from more than a dozen countries including England, Australia, Sweden, Norway, and Finland.

Federal prosecutors said Tresco, known by his screen name "BigRar," took advantage of his job as systems administrator for the Economics Department at MIT to install and operate a number of DrinkOrDie file storage/transfer sites on the MIT system. This included DrinkOrDie's "drop site," a computer connected full-time to the Internet that served as the work station and initial distribution point for all the group's release work of copyrighted material, according to prosecutors. The group would defeat security features, then distribute the counterfeit titles around the world.

In addition, Justice officials said, Tresco also installed and operated a number of the group's FTP "leach" sites containing tens of thousands of software, game, movie and movie titles for copying and downloading by DrinkOrDie members.
[This message was edited Thu Aug 22 7:03:47 PDT 2002 by theC]

theC said:

Do you mean the article about the "internet pirate" going to jail? Unfortunately the link takes you to the news homepage where the main story is about the Klez virus...

KeithyT said:

thanks for some reason i can't get the right link so i just posted the story instead.

The reason people pirate shit is because its all too goddamn expensive in the first place.

You need to know how to use all this high-end software to get a decent tech job, but how the hell are you supposed to afford it to learn it in the first place if you don't have a high paying job yet??

If Photoshop was $75-$100, I would buy it. I'll be damned if I'm gonna shell out $700 for it. By the time I pay my credit card off the next version is getting released.

There's no reason for software and albums to be priced as high as they are these days. It costs less then a dollar to manufacture a CD. The artists, as we all know, see hardly any of it.

It's all greed. And when people rebel against it, they get slapped with a lawsuit.

When will this stop?!

33 months?

Tom said:

I agree.But it's up to the public.Greed at the top is KILLING US.Look at baseball,Millionaires fighting to get more millions.They will never be able to spend all the money they make.But they want to get every cent they can from you while you live check to check.

sad.
They should appeal directly and let the judge blow the NET Act of the table.

wait for their next "message" they want to send out to the hundreds of millions of filesharing "pirates" out there.

Nep2nes said:

theC
And how much time did KENNETH LAY(enron) get???

IN RELATED NEWS.....
RIAA Drops Suit Against ISPs

Recording industry claims victory after Chinese site offering pirated music to American consumers is shut down.

Scarlet Pruitt, IDG News Service
Thursday, August 22, 2002

The Recording Industry Association of America has withdrawn a lawsuit demanding that four major Internet service providers cut off access to a China-based Web site providing pirated music since the site is now no longer online.

The RIAA, which represents the big five record labels, claimed victory in the case this week, saying that the site had been shut down since Sunday, thanks to its antipiracy efforts.

The RIAA filed suit against AT&T Broadband, Cable & Wireless USA, Sprint, and WorldCom's UUNet Technologies division last Friday, demanding that they block communications to and from servers run by the site since they maintained the Internet backbone.

Evading Copyright Laws?

Although the site in question, www.listen4ever.com, was registered in China, the RIAA said that it targeted U.S. consumers since it was maintained in English and featured free music from top-selling U.S. artists.

"This particular network was a crass attempt to evade our copyright laws by setting up shop in China while offering a treasure trove of mostly American music," RIAA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Hilary Rosen said in a statement.

The RIAA said that although it has withdrawn its case, it does not preclude it from pursuing litigation if Listen4Ever.com goes back online.

While the New York-based music industry group said that the suit was a necessary measure in protecting its members intellectual property, civil liberty organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation expressed concern over the case, which it said set a precedent whereby any one alleging piracy could shut down parts of the Internet.
[This message was edited Thu Aug 22 17:23:36 PDT 2002 by theC]