Game Piracy Nets Jail Term, Heavy Fine

[MikailCaboose]

See this is the kind of pirate arsehole that they should be hunting, rather than those than simply download a few games.

No, they should still hunt all of them down unless they buy the game from a reputable source within a year or so.

Hey, that's the only way I can get any Touhou game! That would mean me hauling my ass all the way to the Comiket building in Tokyo during that time... That's practically impossible for me!

 

[SirCannonFodder]

See this is the kind of pirate arsehole that they should be hunting, rather than those than simply download a few games.

Why should they be going after him?

All he's doing is putting his time into helping others get a few games. He makes a few bucks on the side for his troubles, but really he's just copying out a few games for some folks. What's wrong with that?

(I kid, I kid)

What's wrong with it is that he is benefiting from someone else's work, giving them nothing in return. Furthermore, he's enabling others to do the same. That's what he's doing that's so heinous that this "arsehole" is deserving of so stiff a penalty. And hey, you even agree, so we're all on the same page.

Problem? It's no different from run-of-the-mill piracy. If you're downloading a torrent, and you're seeding, you're distributing that file to others. No, you're not making any money on it... but neither are the people that worked to make the game.

What this guy does is only wrong because of the existence of "those simply downloading a few games. Without them, who does he sell to? No one. He's just a guy with 35,000 copies of some games sitting on his computer. We look at him like he's the big Satan because of the scope--35,000 copies--but what about the 35,000 folks that used his services?

Those are your downloaders. Your "basic" pirates. It is only because of them that anything this guy did is wrong. To act like they're separate from him, better than him, is to delude oneself.

Why would those "simply downloading a few games" buy anything from him? They're already able to download the games themselves, why on earth would they pay someone $10 to do it for them? Surely the "basic" pirates would be amongst those least likely to buy anything from him?

Also, downloading a game without paying is nowhere near as bad as selling that downloaded game for personal profit. The downloader simply isn't putting money into the industry, money which they either wouldn't (or couldn't) have spent on games in the first place, or will be spending on a different game, while the person selling the pirated games is actively taking money away from the industry by causing those who *can* pay to spend money on his copies, instead of spending it on either a legitimate copy of the game or a game they were actually planning to buy.

 

[Zakarath]

Good. I'm glad this guy got burned... Even though I tend to be on the opposite side of the war as pirates, I can sympathize with the people who just want to play some games for free. This guy is not them. He deliberately stole the IP and the very hard work of others and tried to profit from it without giving the original creators a dime. I won't hold piracy against people who just want to play some games and have fun(though I may look down on them for it).
Doing so out of base greed is another story.

 

[Delusibeta]

What this guy does is only wrong because of the existence of "those simply downloading a few games. Without them, who does he sell to? No one. He's just a guy with 35,000 copies of some games sitting on his computer. We look at him like he's the big Satan because of the scope--35,000 copies--but what about the 35,000 folks that used his services?

Those are your downloaders. Your "basic" pirates. It is only because of them that anything this guy did is wrong. To act like they're separate from him, better than him, is to delude oneself.

Incorrect. He sells to people (presumably on eBay, but it could also be any car boot sale you care to mention) who didn't check where the games came from at a knock-down price. The difference is that he's effectively stolen the customer's money by selling counterfeit goods.

Plus, arguing that his piracy was only possible from peer-to-peer is rubbish, since this sort of piracy has been happening since day dot. I wouldn't be too surprised if there was a past case of similar scale as well.

 

[subfield]

To act like they're separate from him, better than him, is to delude oneself.

To not recognize that by construction their actions differ from his, and that in this way they can be separated from him in a multitude of trivial ways, is to pineapple oneself.

 

[QuadFish]

If you're downloading a torrent, and you're seeding, you're distributing that file to others.

I haven't pirated any games in well over a year now (since I got Steam), besides Quake 3 which I bought about a month later, but when I did, I always limited my upload speed to 1 KB/s.

Funnily enough, that makes me a doubly bad person, since I was a pirate who was also very selfish towards other pirates.

On an unrelated note, I feel people these days tend to treat pirates less these days with measured, logical criticism and more outright, intense hatred. You don't convince people by calling them assholes...

 

[Cryo84R]

Instead of throwing every pirate in jail, the cheaper option would be to break their legs and cut off Internet access forever.

I volunteer to do the leg breaking.

A friend of mine asked me to help with his crappy PC full of pirated software, so I made sure it never powered up ever again.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Anyway, this guy is having his assets seized by the FBI, his house, his vehicle, and for the most part all the property held therein as well as likely all his other assets. It's not just what they're taking now; his bank accounts will be frozen, there will be an audit conducted and heavy fines applied to it as well. Then you add in the fines he has to pay on top of that. Add to that that he's going to be in jail for the next two and a half years. If he had a job, he won't when he gets out. Not only that, he's going to be broke, destitute, homeless, and a felon.

Now as much as I'm in favor of piracy, I still recognise it's wrong and I'm not going to shed a tear for those that get caught. Afterall, the first rule of being a thief IS "Don't get caught." However, the punishment levied against him means that his life is over. They've taken everything away from him, they will give nothing back after he's released. He will have nowhere to go except a halfway house, he will have nothing to live on, and he will have no job opertunities for the rest of his life(Check your statistics, NO ONE wants to hire a felon, whether it's rape/child abuse or just simple tax evasion).

Not only that, he's liable to return to a life of crime just out of necessity. So not only has his life been ruined, the justice system has failed to do what it was supposedly created for in the first place ? stopping and preventing crime. Ultimately we'd all have been better off if he'd just been let go. This is a problem with the justice system in general (I think if you got a bunch of wise people together and told them to construct a new model for human society from scratch, prisons wouldn't even exist), but especially in cases like this where the state has been not only allowed but expected to "prosecute to the fullest extent of the law."

 

[darkcommanderq]

See this is the kind of pirate arsehole that they should be hunting, rather than those than simply download a few games.

No, they should still hunt all of them down unless they buy the game from a reputable source within a year or so.

Why? Do you realize how much money it takes to investigate something like this? The only reason why this guy was tracked at all is because he was making a business out of it. It probably takes more in salaries of investigates to track a casual pirate than you would ever get in money from them in lawsuits. That shifts the burden of the investigation to the tax payer, which I think is a bit unfair to the majority of society.

See this is the kind of pirate arsehole that they should be hunting, rather than those than simply download a few games.

Why should they be going after him?

All he's doing is putting his time into helping others get a few games. He makes a few bucks on the side for his troubles, but really he's just copying out a few games for some folks. What's wrong with that?

(I kid, I kid)

What's wrong with it is that he is benefiting from someone else's work, giving them nothing in return. Furthermore, he's enabling others to do the same. That's what he's doing that's so heinous that this "arsehole" is deserving of so stiff a penalty. And hey, you even agree, so we're all on the same page.

Problem? It's no different from run-of-the-mill piracy. If you're downloading a torrent, and you're seeding, you're distributing that file to others. No, you're not making any money on it... but neither are the people that worked to make the game.

What this guy does is only wrong because of the existence of "those simply downloading a few games. Without them, who does he sell to? No one. He's just a guy with 35,000 copies of some games sitting on his computer. We look at him like he's the big Satan because of the scope--35,000 copies--but what about the 35,000 folks that used his services?

Those are your downloaders. Your "basic" pirates. It is only because of them that anything this guy did is wrong. To act like they're separate from him, better than him, is to delude oneself.

I dont think the people that bought from him were pirates. Being a pirate imply that you steal, not buy games at a cheap discount from an obvious con op.

Also I think your missing the reason why a lot of pirates do what they do. They like the challenge of cracking the DRM of a game, and just hoarding lots of software in general.

I think your overestimating the damage caused by casual pirates compared with someone like this that is actually selling them.

 

[Dastardly]

What this guy does is only wrong because of the existence of "those simply downloading a few games. Without them, who does he sell to? No one. He's just a guy with 35,000 copies of some games sitting on his computer. We look at him like he's the big Satan because of the scope--35,000 copies--but what about the 35,000 folks that used his services?

Those are your downloaders. Your "basic" pirates. It is only because of them that anything this guy did is wrong. To act like they're separate from him, better than him, is to delude oneself.

Incorrect. He sells to people (presumably on eBay, but it could also be any car boot sale you care to mention) who didn't check where the games came from at a knock-down price. The difference is that he's effectively stolen the customer's money by selling counterfeit goods.

Plus, arguing that his piracy was only possible from peer-to-peer is rubbish, since this sort of piracy has been happening since day dot. I wouldn't be too surprised if there was a past case of similar scale as well.

Counterfeiting is not stealing. The customer is getting exactly the product for which they handed him money, at a price agreed upon before the transaction. Neither buyer nor seller are deprived of anything to which they were entitled, so the transaction does not constitute stealing.

Or, more accurately, if piracy is not stealing, than counterfeiting is not, either. And by the exact same logic.

 

[Dastardly]

Why would those "simply downloading a few games" buy anything from him? They're already able to download the games themselves, why on earth would they pay someone $10 to do it for them? Surely the "basic" pirates would be amongst those least likely to buy anything from him?

The fact that "smarter" pirates don't pay doesn't make the ones that do pay somehow not pirates. They know full well they aren't paying the correct people. If I buy a TV off a guy standing on a street corner for $50, and it's a damn good TV, I know I'm buying a stolen TV. A new one would be more, and if it were his that he was selling used, he'd be asking more than $50 to recoup more of what he'd paid originally.

Also, downloading a game without paying is nowhere near as bad as selling that downloaded game for personal profit. The downloader simply isn't putting money into the industry, money which they either wouldn't (or couldn't) have spent on games in the first place, or will be spending on a different game, while the person selling the pirated games is actively taking money away from the industry by causing those who *can* pay to spend money on his copies, instead of spending it on either a legitimate copy of the game or a game they were actually planning to buy.

"More bad" and "less bad" are both still a long way from being "good." The one that does it for money is simply more maliciously aware of the damage he's doing to the industry. He has less ability to convince himself he's not doing something illegal. The downloader can simply point to the illegal seller and say, "Well, see, I'm not as bad as him, so that must mean I'm good." The only difference between them is the ease of empty justification.

 

[Asehujiko]

See this is the kind of pirate arsehole that they should be hunting, rather than those than simply download a few games.

No, they should still hunt all of them down unless they buy the game from a reputable source within a year or so.

"You got screwed with a counterfeit product from a conman who is in no position to give you your money back! Pay the fuck up or else!"
Doesn't sound like a convincing reason to ruin somebody's life to me. Remember, this guy was selling cracked copies as a legitimate online retailer like Steam, GamersGate or Impulse not as something he found on TPB.

 

[Gindil]

Wow...

Nationwide was not on his side...

 

[Gindil]

Win for justice. If you want to pirate video games and then sell them at profit, in this case a massive profit, then I don't feel sorry at all you're getting nailed. People like this hurt the industry in a big way and I'd rather see them get their just desserts.

It saddens me greatly that you fail to see he merely asked for $10 (covering a CD) and had his life ruined because others wanted to sample programs, which we don't know are all copyrighted...