Torrent Site Founder, Moderator and Users Receive Prison Sentences

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I just don't understand stuff like this. Is running a torrent site really worth having to pay millions of dollars in fines and a prison sentence? The kicker is that some of the people arrested and fined were just moderators and users of the site. It's just not worth it.

The 28-year-old former operator of a French-based torrent site has been ordered to serve a year in jail and pay a five million euro fine. A moderator received a four-month suspended sentence. Somewhat unusually, four regular users of the site were tracked down by their IP addresses. They too received custodial sentences.
 
It's always interesting to see this stuff when it happens considering torrents are just text files, literally text files with some information in them related to the actual file people are interested in acquiring.

My thinking is this: if they can go after a torrent site operator for sharing just text files, they should be able to go after Usenet providers for the same reasons because that's what Usenet is (in fact that's the only thing it supports: 7 bit text files).

Regardless of all the legal pursuits, it won't make a dent in things that matters as people will continue to pirate materials even so, it's just the nature of the world at large now.
 
No crime is worth the time. Nevertheless, people will do it anyways.
 
The torrent site admin's reply is priceless:
"You [anti-piracy groups and authorities] are a lot of vile shit, destroying lives of people who are already struggling to pay their rent, their food, their bills,” he said.

“Why all this? Because they wanted to watch and because they didn’t necessarily have the capabilities to buy a DVD / BluRay or go to the theaters.”


Errr.... why does being poor suddenly give you the right to access luxury services without paying? It's not like they were unaware of the legality of what they were doing. They chose to take the risk again and again and again and are now about to be slammed for it.
 
Errr.... why does being poor suddenly give you the right to access luxury services without paying? I
.. because information wants to be free, and copying content totally has zero effect in the world. Totes not an entitlement issue. /sarcasm
 
And yet, Hillary's punishment for breaking the law, several times, will be the US presidency.

I know, different countries, but the principle is the same, laws only applies to the poor.

Edit* for grammar, since it looks like in HOCP, the concept of ESL is foreign to many.
 
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The torrent site admin's reply is priceless:
"You [anti-piracy groups and authorities] are a lot of vile shit, destroying lives of people who are already struggling to pay their rent, their food, their bills,” he said.

“Why all this? Because they wanted to watch and because they didn’t necessarily have the capabilities to buy a DVD / BluRay or go to the theaters.”


Errr.... why does being poor suddenly give you the right to access luxury services without paying? It's not like they were unaware of the legality of what they were doing. They chose to take the risk again and again and again and are now about to be slammed for it.
Yes. And if these poor people only torrented a few movies I doubt the police would have bothered. These guys had to have been torrenting everything.

Searches of two suspects’ homes yielded several computers plus more than 3.5 terabytes of the latest movies. A separate server found overseas contained several thousand more.
 
And yet, Hillary punishment for breaking the law several times is the US presidency.

I know, different countries, but the principle is the same, laws only applies to the poor.

While I agree with the poor always getting the short end of the law stick it's still illegal to share movies and they had to understand what they were doing when they started.

As for the topic.

Downloading a movie you did not pay for is wrong. Hosting a movie that you did or did not pay for so others can download it is wrong. There isn't any wiggle room under this basic idea. I feel for them, and don't think the punishment fit the crime, but there was a crime so there has to be some punishment. That's not in question is it?
 
The torrent site admin's reply is priceless:
"You [anti-piracy groups and authorities] are a lot of vile shit, destroying lives of people who are already struggling to pay their rent, their food, their bills,” he said.

“Why all this? Because they wanted to watch and because they didn’t necessarily have the capabilities to buy a DVD / BluRay or go to the theaters.”


Errr.... why does being poor suddenly give you the right to access luxury services without paying? It's not like they were unaware of the legality of what they were doing. They chose to take the risk again and again and again and are now about to be slammed for it.


Because we are getting back at the people who made us poor in the first place, by only giving us 30% of the profit we generate, then taking 20-30% of the little bit we DO get (to pay for all the prisons and military invasions), and then taking another 7-10% when we buy anything (to actually pay for the roads and schools).

For every dollar you earn for your employer, you only get to keep about 19 cents

It's only fair to steal from them, because THEY stole from US first.
 
The torrent site admin's reply is priceless:
"You [anti-piracy groups and authorities] are a lot of vile shit, destroying lives of people who are already struggling to pay their rent, their food, their bills,” he said.

“Why all this? Because they wanted to watch and because they didn’t necessarily have the capabilities to buy a DVD / BluRay or go to the theaters.”


Errr.... why does being poor suddenly give you the right to access luxury services without paying? It's not like they were unaware of the legality of what they were doing. They chose to take the risk again and again and again and are now about to be slammed for it.
Shit, he doesn't even feel any remorse:
Listing the country’s most popular torrent indexes, trackers and DDL sites, the admin declared that they would never fall.

“Warez is a hydra, you cut off one head, 10 will grow back. You’ll never kill this beautiful community. It’s like drug dealers, it will never stop,” he said.
 
Is locking-up a few non-violent criminals really worth having to pay millions of tax dollars in prison costs?

Is becoming a criminal, violent or otherwise, worth depriving your wife of her husband, your children of their father, of your family of your support?
 
Because we are getting back at the people who made us poor in the first place, by only giving us 30% of the profit we generate, then taking 20-30% of the little bit we DO get (to pay for all the prisons and military invasions), and then taking another 7-10% when we buy anything (to actually pay for the roads and schools).

For every dollar you earn for your employer, you only get to keep about 19 cents

It's only fair to steal from them, because THEY stole from US first.

I'm no one big or special. I own my home, I'll be closing on my second in a few weeks. My kids went to college. I'm just an employee my wife is just a barber. I have no debts, no mortgages, paying on no loans. I work and I save and I live within my means. My wife and I have provided for our children and we don't really have to live without.

So other than the fact that we haven't suffered any major setbacks in life, why is it we are OK and other can't make it cause everything is being stolen from them?

I think it's simple. When we were young, we saved, we did without what we didn't need mostly, we stayed out of debt as much as we could. And we didn't do illegal shit because we had justified it in our minds.

But maybe my wife and I are just the odd lucky couple who married and stayed that way, who put our future ahead of our wants, and somehow fortune smiled and riches flowed from our every orifice.

What do we know, I still have some old VHS tapes in a drawer somewhere.
 
The torrent site admin's reply is priceless:
"You [anti-piracy groups and authorities] are a lot of vile shit, destroying lives of people who are already struggling to pay their rent, their food, their bills,” he said.

“Why all this? Because they wanted to watch and because they didn’t necessarily have the capabilities to buy a DVD / BluRay or go to the theaters.”


Errr.... why does being poor suddenly give you the right to access luxury services without paying? It's not like they were unaware of the legality of what they were doing. They chose to take the risk again and again and again and are now about to be slammed for it.

He should have just shoplifted his movies.
Out here in California the leftist passed Prop 47. It's now just catch and release for most shoplifters, as long as they steal less than $950 each time.
 
The torrent site admin's reply is priceless:
"You [anti-piracy groups and authorities] are a lot of vile shit, destroying lives of people who are already struggling to pay their rent, their food, their bills,” he said.

“Why all this? Because they wanted to watch and because they didn’t necessarily have the capabilities to buy a DVD / BluRay or go to the theaters.”


Errr.... why does being poor suddenly give you the right to access luxury services without paying? It's not like they were unaware of the legality of what they were doing. They chose to take the risk again and again and again and are now about to be slammed for it.
I believe the complaint is about the severity of the punishment, considering the effect on the victim of the crime.

Last I checked, the Hollywood fat cats running the show still have plenty of money for gifts on Hanukkah, and Johnny Depp's private island is still quite livable. So the question is would these poor people have even purchased the bluray were piracy not an option, or just not watched the movie, in which case there literally is no victim since there is no lost revenue and nothing was "taken" from anyone.

That's a big difference from what we traditionally think of as theft that involves say armed robbery, which puts lives at risk and physically takes things from people.

So is jay walking a crime, and would it be a problem if everyone did it? Absolutely. But does it make sense to try and ruin someone's life because they jay walked?
 
And yet, Hillary punishment for breaking the law several times is the US presidency.

I know, different countries, but the principle is the same, laws only applies to the poor.

If they found several TB of torrented movies on Hillary's server it still wouldn't matter. The laws only apply to the little people.

To paraphrase George Orwell, "All people are equal, but some people are more equal than others."
 
He should have just shoplifted his movies.
Out here in California the leftist passed Prop 47. It's now just catch and release for most shoplifters, as long as they steal less than $950 each time.

Should be community service, but I agree with not sending them to jail.
 
But maybe my wife and I are just the odd lucky couple who married and stayed that way, who put our future ahead of our wants, and somehow fortune smiled and riches flowed from our every orifice.

Getting married and staying married is one of the secrets to wealth for the middle class.

You wonder why so many people have problems getting by? Just look at the divorce rate and single parents.
 
While I agree with the poor always getting the short end of the law stick it's still illegal to share movies and they had to understand what they were doing when they started.

Don't get me wrong, I agree that if you break the law, you should pay for it, just stating how unfair is the current situation for all.
 
Should be community service, but I agree with not sending them to jail.

Except many cities are reporting large increases in shoplifting and other property crimes.
The crooks quickly learned that they can steal as much as they want, as long as it's less then $950 each time.
 
If the politicians want media companies on their side they have to allow things like this.
 
I dont understand people in this thread. Its ok to send the owner and mods of a site that hosted no copyrighted material to jail for 10 months? Copyright infringement is not theft.
 
I believe the complaint is about the severity of the punishment, considering the effect on the victim of the crime.

Last I checked, the Hollywood fat cats running the show still have plenty of money for gifts on Hanukkah, and Johnny Depp's private island is still quite livable. So the question is would these poor people have even purchased the bluray were piracy not an option, or just not watched the movie, in which case there literally is no victim since there is no lost revenue and nothing was "taken" from anyone.

That's a big difference from what we traditionally think of as theft that involves say armed robbery, which puts lives at risk and physically takes things from people.

So is jay walking a crime, and would it be a problem if everyone did it? Absolutely. But does it make sense to try and ruin someone's life because they jay walked?


Well, it's France and not the US so I'd like to leave some room for differences in the laws. But if this is a criminal case and not their version of a civil case, such concepts have no bearing. Criminal cases do not revolve around damages, that's a structure applicable to civil law.

So which are we dealing with? Normally in the US, if a jail sentence is involved, you are not talking about a civil case, it's criminal. And if it's criminal the punishment thing isn't about loss, or proportion, it's about don't do it or else and the or else part is all about the deterrent factor, which is all about making the punishment severe enough that you don't want to get caught doing that shit cause it will cost you much more than it's worth.

This quote suggests the case was a criminal case.
Founded in 2008, the site had built up a solid userbase of around 3.5 million visitors per month. Police insisted it was a for-profit project.

This one confirms it;
Following a hearing in March, yesterday the Criminal Court of Chalons-en-Champagne (Marne, France) sentenced the founder of OMGTorrent to one year in prison.

From the sounds of things, the criminal part mostly had to do with the magnitude of their activities;
Early claims suggested the site had offered for download more than 10,000 pirated movies.

Founded in 2008, the site had built up a solid userbase of around 3.5 million visitors per month. Police insisted it was a for-profit project.

Therefor, these particular individuals were operating a criminal enterprise.
 
I dont understand people in this thread. Its ok to send the owner and mods of a site that hosted no copyrighted material to jail for 10 months? Copyright infringement is not theft.

Is not only this thread, is everywhere.

For some weird reason, people feel the need to blindly defend corporations and lash against fellow people if they even hint at anything that might harm their favorite companies.

See apple and microsoft fanbois.

Just weird.
 
If they found several TB of torrented movies on Hillary's server it still wouldn't matter. The laws only apply to the little people.

To paraphrase George Orwell, "All people are equal, but some people are more equal than others."


I disagree. I do think the rich have a better chance to insulate themselves from their wrong doings, but there are just too many rich fat cats and politicians in prison to say it as an absolute.
 
Getting married and staying married is one of the secrets to wealth for the middle class.

You wonder why so many people have problems getting by? Just look at the divorce rate and single parents.

I do agree. Two people who can barely make it alone get married, pool their resources, then split up, and pay more every step of the way to get into a position that is worse than the one they were originally in.

They don't lie when they say it's cheaper to keep them.
 
I just don't understand stuff like this. Is running a torrent site really worth having to pay millions of dollars in fines and a prison sentence? The kicker is that some of the people arrested and fined were just moderators and users of the site. It's just not worth it.

The 28-year-old former operator of a French-based torrent site has been ordered to serve a year in jail and pay a five million euro fine. A moderator received a four-month suspended sentence. Somewhat unusually, four regular users of the site were tracked down by their IP addresses. They too received custodial sentences.
You have it backwards. Why would anyone sentence a moderator or user of a torrent site to prison? I mean do they really pose a threat to society? That's completely retarded and against any sense of justice.
The judge who sentenced them to prison probably caused magnitudes more harm to society by doing so than they could have caused with torrenting for 10 years.
I'd hazard that he was paid off by some copyright bullies, to increase sentencing. So he is the real criminal here.

The goal of the justice system is to try to rehabilitate criminals. And if anyone is worthy of rehabilitation then it's such a minor criminal as a pirate. The only job of the legal system here should've been to teach them not to pirate, and why piracy is wrong. Sending them to do time, will surely make them more valuable members of society...NOT.
Basically they turn people who did minor harm, into lost causes.

This makes me infinitely mad. I'd revoke the license of the judge, hell I'd even make him stand trial for crimes against society. Fuck him the sell out piece of human scum.
 
Getting married and staying married is one of the secrets to wealth for the middle class.
Most men make more money than women, and have much lower medical costs on average.

Staying single and getting a vasectomy is one of the secrets to wealth for the middle class. I have friends that make way more than me, but seem so poor, because they have to split it among a dependent wife and three dependent kids, and have zero free time left over and have to hide in the bathroom with their cellphone for some "me" time to chill.

Can't wait for inexpensive Chinese sex-bots to become available, Ex Machina style.
 
No crime is worth the time. Nevertheless, people will do it anyways.
Yes, I agree, as in most crimes don't warrant prison time. It's completely stupid and counter productive to imprison people who aren't violent and contribute to society by working and paying taxes.

So they caused a perceived loss of a drop in a bucket for some big corporations. Maybe if they pirated a lot of thins , then they caused 1000 in losses (if we count every lost sale as a loss, what we know is completely bogus and untrue, since if people were unable to pirate they'd buy only a fraction of the content that they download for free). So what the solution of these fine law abiding non-pirating citizens? Send them to prison, where they don't work, don't pay taxes, but costs roughly 2000/month from taxes to keep them? How is that doing anything to alleviate the problem?

I'm not saying they shouldn't be reprimanded. But how about, a fine or mandatory community work, that they can do while continuing to be a contributors to society instead of turning them into involuntary leeches? And then into hopeless ex-cons who will live out the rest of their lives on welfare?
 
... or, you know, don't be a pirating nexus if you don't want to run the risk of being a "hopeless ex-cons who will live out the rest of their lives on welfare".
 
French person in France knowingly, willingly and repeatedly breaks the law by taking/helping others take luxury services they didn't pay for. Person gets punished.

Having very little sympathy for the perpetrator somehow gets twisted into being a submissive sheep supporting a Matrix style corporate dictatorship. Makes sense.
 
Most men make more money than women, and have much lower medical costs on average.

Staying single and getting a vasectomy is one of the secrets to wealth for the middle class. I have friends that make way more than me, but seem so poor, because they have to split it among a dependent wife and three dependent kids, and have zero free time left over and have to hide in the bathroom with their cellphone for some "me" time to chill.

Can't wait for inexpensive Chinese sex-bots to become available, Ex Machina style.
So short sighted. If even a tenth of people started doing that. eg not having kids. Then the entire tax machine and government would collapse and you'd die cold and alone because noone would be left to pay your pension or care for you when you're too old to care for yourself.
 
You have it backwards. Why would anyone sentence a moderator or user of a torrent site to prison? I mean do they really pose a threat to society? That's completely retarded and against any sense of justice.
The judge who sentenced them to prison probably caused magnitudes more harm to society by doing so than they could have caused with torrenting for 10 years.
I'd hazard that he was paid off by some copyright bullies, to increase sentencing. So he is the real criminal here.

The goal of the justice system is to try to rehabilitate criminals. And if anyone is worthy of rehabilitation then it's such a minor criminal as a pirate. The only job of the legal system here should've been to teach them not to pirate, and why piracy is wrong. Sending them to do time, will surely make them more valuable members of society...NOT.
Basically they turn people who did minor harm, into lost causes.

This makes me infinitely mad. I'd revoke the license of the judge, hell I'd even make him stand trial for crimes against society. Fuck him the sell out piece of human scum.


Because Madoff didn't deserve prison either.

Along with all those insider trading guys, etc.
 
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