Ex-Labor Department Employee Admits Bootleg Movie Operation

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How in the hell does this guy get two years probation while people that download a couple of movies are getting years in prison, astronomically high fines or both? Thanks to Methadras for the link.

According to court documents, Taylor, 57, used a five-bay DVD burner to copy and then sell pirated movies. Court documents say Taylor began his operation as early as 2008, and he ran the pirating operation during work hours, selling his colleagues pirated DVDs for $4 or $5 each. In 2013 alone, Taylor's last year in the Labor Department, he made more than $19,000 from his pirating scheme, copying and selling 1,268 copies to his colleagues.
 
The ridiculous "bonus" time you get from digital media. This guy "only" handed out 1,268 copies; if he uploaded it online, they would have argued every man, woman and child on earth could or did download it thus he should pay for every single copy.
 
Another entrepreneur's business strangled out of existence. Thanks Obama!
 
To be fair, it wasn't like he was selling bootleg copies on the street, he was only doing it with fellow workers.

In 2013 alone, Taylor's last year in the Labor Department, he made more than $19,000 from his pirating scheme, copying and selling 1,268 copies to his colleagues.
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Jesus Christ, and these people some how run this country that they don't know how to copy movies themselves?
 
I'll bet you a lot of the people that are outraged have not a single problem with pirating digital versions of the movies.
 
19k is chump change.
He was selling to his fellow old geezers.
Bittorrent does more damage
 
I used to do this in the early 2000's with Playstation games and movies. I would rent games and movies then make copies and sell them to my coworkers for $5 a copy.
 
The guy is obviously a government worker, a union member, and loyal a Democrat, so the laws don't apply to him. I'm surprised they even bothered with probation.
 
Steve said:
How in the hell does this guy get two years probation while people that download a couple of movies are getting years in prison, astronomically high fines or both? Thanks to Methadras for the link.

According to court documents, Taylor, 57, used a five-bay DVD burner to copy and then sell pirated movies. Court documents say Taylor began his operation as early as 2008, and he ran the pirating operation during work hours, selling his colleagues pirated DVDs for $4 or $5 each. In 2013 alone, Taylor's last year in the Labor Department, he made more than $19,000 from his pirating scheme, copying and selling 1,268 copies to his colleagues.
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How did he find people willing to buy the movies? In 2013 he sold between 3k and 5k copies. I've got exactly one DVD that is a boot and that's a based off of an Oscar screaner for the 2 towers. I own both legit DVDs, but that came out early and I kept it, because it's got subtitles that are so bad they're good. Even then, I got it for free from a friend.
 
I bet the taxpayers even paid for the blank DVDs.

If this was a private company, the company would have it's equipment seized, and be subject to huge fines for letting this happen.
If he was a Republican, then would be demanding a $10,000 fine for every copy made.
If he was a TEA Party member, he would be facing 12,680 years in prison. (10 years for each copy), plus IRS audits going back to when he was born.
 
nutzo said:
The guy is obviously a government worker, a union member, and loyal a Democrat, so the laws don't apply to him. I'm surprised they even bothered with probation.
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Bingo.
 
I've always said that those selling movies need to be gone after much harder. They have an audience willing to pay *something* and are profiting from it.
 
A corner store not far from where I used to live sold in the store "new movies" and they were cams and rips of movies in theaters you could buy for $5-10. I knew a lot of people that bought those. Cams ewwww, just go to the theater or wait till release. lol
 
nutzo said:
I bet the taxpayers even paid for the blank DVDs.

If this was a private company, the company would have it's equipment seized, and be subject to huge fines for letting this happen.
If he was a Republican, then would be demanding a $10,000 fine for every copy made.
If he was a TEA Party member, he would be facing 12,680 years in prison. (10 years for each copy), plus IRS audits going back to when he was born.
Click to expand...

^^ QFT
 
nutzo said:
If he was a Republican, then would be demanding a $10,000 fine for every copy made.
If he was a TEA Party member, he would be facing 12,680 years in prison. (10 years for each copy), plus IRS audits going back to when he was born.
Click to expand...

Oh come on. Drop the made up "Obama led government is persecuting conservatives" bull shit, started by that factually incorrect IRS story that was in the news a couple of years ago.

It's been clearly shown that the IRS was given marching orders to go after any political organization. it was just easier to find the tea party ones, as they tended to have "tea party" in their names on the application forms.

Do yourself a favor, turn off Fox News and instead tune in to reality.
 
snowcrash said:
I'll bet you a lot of the people that are outraged have not a single problem with pirating digital versions of the movies.
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I am against piracy in any form, but this guy shouldn't be compared to someone downloading a movie and instead should be considered a poorer, offline version of Kim Dotcom who decided to use the piracy of movies to turn a profit for themselves.

Basically these are the people the studios should be going after, not the person who simply downloaded a couple movies.
 
Steve said:
How in the hell does this guy get two years probation while people that download a couple of movies are getting years in prison, astronomically high fines or both? Thanks to Methadras for the link.

According to court documents, Taylor, 57, used a five-bay DVD burner to copy and then sell pirated movies. Court documents say Taylor began his operation as early as 2008, and he ran the pirating operation during work hours, selling his colleagues pirated DVDs for $4 or $5 each. In 2013 alone, Taylor's last year in the Labor Department, he made more than $19,000 from his pirating scheme, copying and selling 1,268 copies to his colleagues.
Click to expand...

So if he sold 1,268 DVDs in 2013 for $4-5 each, how exactly do they get the $19,000 figure when at $5 each it only comes to $6,340?
 
Zarathustra[H];1041844645 said:
If you are into pirated content, why the hell would you buy a pirated DVD...
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Maybe because you work in an area where your computers are scanned and your internet activity logged, sites blocked, etc. But a DVD in the drive is of no consequence and won't be noticed. Sneak in a movie to break up the work day, a little diversion at lunch time while you eat the meal you brought that day. Some guy has a stash for sale cheap, it's easy and you don't have to spend your time at home doing it.

These are government guys, lazy rules.
 
DarkStar_WNY said:
So if he sold 1,268 DVDs in 2013 for $4-5 each, how exactly do they get the $19,000 figure when at $5 each it only comes to $6,340?
Click to expand...

They probably got there by assuming retail value for all the titles.

That's how they usually calculate their perceived loss.
 
And because reports are always fucking shit up when they report it.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041844659 said:
Oh come on. Drop the made up "Obama led government is persecuting conservatives" bull shit, started by that factually incorrect IRS story that was in the news a couple of years ago.

It's been clearly shown that the IRS was given marching orders to go after any political organization. it was just easier to find the tea party ones, as they tended to have "tea party" in their names on the application forms.

Do yourself a favor, turn off Fox News and instead tune in to reality.
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Says the person who clearly gets all their news from MSNBC and the Daily Show.
 
Seventyfive said:
Says the person who clearly gets all their news from MSNBC and the Daily Show.
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The Daily Show was never a news outlet. it was a comedy routine poking fun at current events. Funny to watch, but not a source of news.

MSNBC are almost as bad as Fox, but on the opposite side of the political spectrum, so I tend to avoid them.

I say "almost" as bad, as they are just as biased as Fox is, in what they present and in their editorial content, but the difference is they don't have a history of making shit up and running with it, as long as it supports their agenda, like Fox does.

"Fox News" is not a news outlet. It is a propaganda channel for the right wing cause, that will stop at nothing to push the right wing agenda, including intentionally taking anything and everything out of context, making up controversy, fear mongering, and in many cases completely fabricating stories.

Such was the story about the IRS denying tax-free applications for Tea Party organizations which they are supposed to do, because political organizations are NOT tax exempt. They also declined the applications of many liberal political organizations. The reasons it looked skewed were

1.) There weren't as many liberal applications, because the left isn't as obsessed with taxes as the tea party.

2.) If you put "tea party" in your name, it is immediately apparent that you are a political organization. If you have an applicant named "Women's Health of Massachusetts" (I just made that example up on the spot) that could be a non-profit gynecology resource, OR it could be a political lobbying organization. (One would be tax exempt, the other wouldn't) It is much less clear, so they stayed in the backlog and weren't rejected as quickly.


It's sort of like saying that police have a bias against drivers of brightly colored sports cars with loud exhausts.

No, they don't. They just pull over "ticket me red" cars more often, because they stand out more, and are easier to spot when they are misbehaving.
 
DarkStar_WNY said:
So if he sold 1,268 DVDs in 2013 for $4-5 each, how exactly do they get the $19,000 figure when at $5 each it only comes to $6,340?
Click to expand...

Same question I was asking myself when I read the blurb.

Zarathustra[H];1041844714 said:
They probably got there by assuming retail value for all the titles.

That's how they usually calculate their perceived loss.
Click to expand...

Except that's the money that HE made, so that makes no sense.

lcpiper said:
Because he started in 2008.
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It says that was just in his last year at the department, so that doesn't make sense either.

So yeah...someone screwed up somewhere.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041844659 said:
Oh come on. Drop the made up "Obama led government is persecuting conservatives" bull shit, started by that factually incorrect IRS story that was in the news a couple of years ago.

It's been clearly shown that the IRS was given marching orders to go after any political organization. it was just easier to find the tea party ones, as they tended to have "tea party" in their names on the application forms.

Do yourself a favor, turn off Fox News and instead tune in to reality.
Click to expand...

Sure, cause Fox is the only media outlet that distorts the truth. They are all just as bad man. Some even worse.
 
MavericK96 said:
Same question I was asking myself when I read the blurb.



Except that's the money that HE made, so that makes no sense.



It says that was just in his last year at the department, so that doesn't make sense either.

So yeah...someone screwed up somewhere.
Click to expand...

I was about to respond to those who responded to me but you posted exactly what I was going to say, thanks. :D
 
DarkStar_WNY said:
I am against piracy in any form, but this guy shouldn't be compared to someone downloading a movie and instead should be considered a poorer, offline version of Kim Dotcom who decided to use the piracy of movies to turn a profit for themselves.

Basically these are the people the studios should be going after, not the person who simply downloaded a couple movies.
Click to expand...

Oh they probably will. Now that the court case is over with there is legal proof of guilt, at least to whatever he was chaged or plead to. If these charges are actually digital piracy, the civil suite will be a slam dunk for the cash.
 
lcpiper said:
Maybe because you work in an area where your computers are scanned and your internet activity logged, sites blocked, etc. But a DVD in the drive is of no consequence and won't be noticed. Sneak in a movie to break up the work day, a little diversion at lunch time while you eat the meal you brought that day. Some guy has a stash for sale cheap, it's easy and you don't have to spend your time at home doing it.

These are government guys, lazy rules.
Click to expand...

Are you saying they don't have internet at home?
 
lcpiper said:
Sure, cause Fox is the only media outlet that distorts the truth. They are all just as bad man. Some even worse.
Click to expand...

No, Fox is worse, followed by MSNBC then there's everyone else (in broadcast media).

Of the 3 news channels, they have the smallest news organization and they constantly hammer a political message in their news programs (which is hammered harder at night).
 
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