UK Internet Pirate Goes to Jail for Long Time

[PlasmaCow]

Issue's of IP and making money from website advertising aside. The real problem is all of this is a dramatically out-dated media struggling to maintain control.

In addition, our British justice system is far too keen on jailing people when it's not at all appropriate. We really need much higher use of things like long-lasting community service orders. This keeps people in the real world, potentially earning and contributing to society, while doing something practical to pay back their misdeed(s).
We have a shocking habit of releasing unprovoked violent murderers sometimes years early for good behaviour in jail, while non-life threatening tax and fraud related criminals get put away for years for no sensible reason.

 

[Ledan]

Why is he going to jail when it is other people who are breaking the law?
Following this court case, if anyone who has a blog with ads or a website ever talks about any sites where there is legal and illegal content you will get fined and jailed.

 

[Doom972]

That's awful. He just provided links that could be found on regular search engines. Besides, if his crime was making money off of it, why not just make him pay money? I don't think that he's a danger to society.

 

[Baldr]

Most people on the Escapist use avatars which infringe copyright
The Escapist gets ad revenue
Ergo the Escapist should go jail?

Fuck no.

The Escapist staff would remove any avatar if asked by the IP owner. Most of these sites that get in legal trouble refuse to remove stuff when requested by the IP owner/lawyers.

 

[Alandoril]

You see though, the thing is it wasn't infringement. He wasn't actually copying the material.

 

[McMullen]

Damn right, send em to jail.

When will you people learn that you shouldn't make money from IP theft? Probably never.

1) Reread the second paragraph.

2) I think there's a bigger need to lock you up than him;

1) Why would I care what a piracy sympathizer (that has nothing to do with the case) has to say?

I have had my work pirated. Do not call me a pirate sympathizer. Don't assume people who you don't know are criminals simply because they have different opinions. It's a big enough dick move that I considered reporting your post, but I made one as well by saying I'd prefer to see you locked up.

I once googled my own work and the first result was on a torrent site. I can assure you I am not a pirate sympathizer. But I am also not an advocate of destroying people's lives simply for being in the gray area between fair use and piracy. This guy was making a lot of money off advertising, sure. However, there was a grad student who made more than a million dollars once by posting a 1000x1000 pixel web page and selling ad space to companies at $1 a pixel, auctioning off the last thousand. He made money off advertising by simply posting a web page, and foolish marketing people bought it, and financed his education. It was all perfectly legal.

I don't see much difference between what the guy in this article did and the grad student. They had ideas for sites that would make lots of ad money for very little work. One was based on traffic passing through on the way to youtube videos, the other made money off the stupidity of marketers. If the latter example was legal, what's so bad about the former that it requires 1/7th of a person's life expectancy instead of a simple fine?

 

[Living Contradiction]

My, what wonderfully broad strokes we're tarring people with these days. "You tell people of the existence of illegal filesharing? May the forces of good smash you with hammers!"

If anything, the authorities should have been using this guy's site as a great way to point them to people who actually *are* pirates, and arrest them.

Perfectly put. But y'know, we shoot messengers these days. They get in the way of our righteousness.

 

[-|-]

The guy was making money out of theft even if he wasn't stealing, but 4 years is excessive. A big fine and maybe a month or two in jail would have sent the same message without appearing so draconian that he turns into yet another pirates martyr.

 

[-|-]

You can't see that difference? Don't answer that. You have already made yourself clear. Also, up to 4 years in prison isn't 1/7 of your life.

Maybe a sandman got to him.

 

[samahain]

And yet, Google do the same thing, and no doubt profit far more from advertising whilst doing so.

Good point.

You did noticed that the reseach engine warns you that "[...]results have been blocked due to the Millenium Act."

Still. Excellent point. Google isn't spotless.

 

[Bvenged]

Damn right, send em to jail.

When will you people learn that you shouldn't make money from IP theft? Probably never.

Reread the second paragraph. He got ten years for posting links to youtube videos, not to torrent sites. They could send the administrators of Tvtropes and this site to prison for the same thing.

Piracy is wrong, but hamhanded prosecution of IP laws is also wrong, and that's what's happening here.

Do you really think it's fair to send a person to jail for 10 years for posting links to youtube videos? I think there's a bigger need to lock you up than him; he's not advocating destruction of people's lives over trivial things, you are.

BBC news told me:
- That 10 years was the maximum gaol time for his crimes, but instead he was chucked in for 4 years.
- That he linked to sites such as Megaupload and China's Toudu, not just Youtube.
- STN was at one point the UK's most popular site for finding full TV and Movie uploads.
- He had all it's revenue go to his private limited company, which held bank accounts in Latvia (despite him and his business being British). Why would he do that?
- It's difficult to be prosecuted under this law as it's too vague, and previous attempts to prosecute sites and their owners, such as "Oink" and "TV-Links.co.uk", have failed in the past. He must have had some damning evidence against him if this prosecution succeeded.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19253359

These people create sites to index pirated material, because they're smart enough to know there's a market for leading traffic to illegal material, but not smart enough to dodge the law. Law enforcement's smart enough to catch them, but not smart enough to change the law to fill in loopholes and make prosecution more easier.

 

[crazyrabbits]

And yet, Google do the same thing, and no doubt profit far more from advertising whilst doing so.

Yes, but Google is much too powerful. Lobbying groups and businesses like this pick on the little guys that can't afford the top lawyers and favors in court.

As someone who actually saw Surfthechannel before it went down, it was anything but a "little guy".

The site was indexing thousands of links to television shows and movies, often the day it's released. That's bad enough, but the fact that he was making a killing in ad revenue off copyright material is likely what set this off. It wasn't Youtube videos - he was linking to other video sharing sites that were skirting legality by allowing users to post copyrighted material and keep them up for weeks or months at a time.

It was one of the biggest media indexing sites besides Megaupload (which also got shut down) and TVLinks (which is still operational). I don't buy this guy's sob story about how he wasn't doing anything wrong. He was profiting off copyrighted works to a massive degree - as far as I'm concerned, justice was served.

 

[gyrobot_v1legacy]

Good old British justice system.

Guy provides links to movies and such, gets four years in jail, while not actually hosting any illegal content themselves.

Yet adults who have sex with under 13's get told to go on a register, but otherwise get little more than a slap on the wrist.

As for the above comment, there are seriously countless similar stories of other serious crimes getting little to no punishment, mainly (although they won't admit it) due to the overcrowded prisons. Normally people who commit assault, theft or other such crimes that actually directly affect people.

It just shows that money is more important than people when it comes to the eyes of the law.

If you on the registry, the authorities will be notified of your prescene where ever you go. No place will hire you and you are expressedly banned from being near hospitals/schools.

 

[putowtin]

And the only thing that people will take away from this?

£35.000 a month! I need to get some of that action!

 

[McMullen]

Damn right, send em to jail.

When will you people learn that you shouldn't make money from IP theft? Probably never.

Reread the second paragraph. He got ten years for posting links to youtube videos, not to torrent sites. They could send the administrators of Tvtropes and this site to prison for the same thing.

Piracy is wrong, but hamhanded prosecution of IP laws is also wrong, and that's what's happening here.

Do you really think it's fair to send a person to jail for 10 years for posting links to youtube videos? I think there's a bigger need to lock you up than him; he's not advocating destruction of people's lives over trivial things, you are.

BBC news told me:
- That 10 years was the maximum gaol time for his crimes, but instead he was chucked in for 4 years.
- That he linked to sites such as Megaupload and China's Toudu, not just Youtube.
- STN was at one point the UK's most popular site for finding full TV and Movie uploads.
- He had all it's revenue go to his private limited company, which held bank accounts in Latvia (despite him and his business being British). Why would he do that?
- It's difficult to be prosecuted under this law as it's too vague, and previous attempts to prosecute sites and their owners, such as "Oink" and "TV-Links.co.uk", have failed in the past. He must have had some damning evidence against him if this prosecution succeeded.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19253359

These people create sites to index pirated material, because they're smart enough to know there's a market for leading traffic to illegal material, but not smart enough to dodge the law. Law enforcement's smart enough to catch them, but not smart enough to change the law to fill in loopholes and make prosecution more easier.

Ah, that's different then.

 

[Legion]

Good old British justice system.

Guy provides links to movies and such, gets four years in jail, while not actually hosting any illegal content themselves.

Yet adults who have sex with under 13's get told to go on a register, but otherwise get little more than a slap on the wrist.

As for the above comment, there are seriously countless similar stories of other serious crimes getting little to no punishment, mainly (although they won't admit it) due to the overcrowded prisons. Normally people who commit assault, theft or other such crimes that actually directly affect people.

It just shows that money is more important than people when it comes to the eyes of the law.

If you on the registry, the authorities will be notified of your presence where ever you go. No place will hire you and you are expressly banned from being near hospitals/schools.

I am not suggesting that convicted paedophiles receive no punishment, I am saying that the contrast in punishment for the two crimes mentioned, is vastly out of proportion.

A person receiving payment for providing information on where to obtain free movies illegally is not more worthy of being locked up in prison than a person who raped a child. Imprisonment is not meant as a deterrent, it is meant to protect the public from people who pose a danger to society.

Yet people who commit financial crimes seem to receive much harsher punishments than those who commit crimes that directly hurt people.