World's First Jail Sentence for BitTorrent Piracy

"Hong Kong newspaper The Standard reports on what seems to be the world's first case of a BitTorrent movie pirate being sent to jail. (Others have been jailed for related crimes.) After losing his appeal against a November 2005 conviction, Chan Nai-ming, a 38-year-old BitTorrent user known as 'Big Crook,' has begun serving a prison sentence for making the films 'Daredevil,' 'Miss Congeniality,' and 'Red Planet' available for download via BitTorrent. His appeal was based on the fact that he did not profit from the piracy."

From the article: "[Appeals Judge] Beeson noted [convicting magistrate] MacIntosh, in handing out the sentence, was fully aware of the noncommercial nature of the case, but measured the seriousness of the case by the harm done to the moviemakers — not by the gain made by the offender. Chan, and those in the chatroom, 'were aware of the possible criminal implications of uploading films to the system,' Beeson wrote. She also noted the sentence was already drastically reduced, from a maximum of four years, to three months, in order 'to reflect the novelty of the conviction.'


what you think?

:source: Source: http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/06/12/14/1832219.shtml

Ack! You beat me to it, unfortunately the approval was a little late, so it didn't show up therefore I didn't know. I've merged the threads, so all fixed.

Thanks for the news posting!

It seems legal precedence is being set for us right now. I'm sure those in the future will suffer. At least we have some heavy hitters like the Electronic Frontier Foundation fighting back with us.

This era will shape the path of those to follow.

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Originally Posted by Hairbautt

Ack! You beat me to it, unfortunately the approval was a little late, so it didn't show up therefore I didn't know. I've merged the threads, so all fixed.

Thanks for the news posting!

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it ok :)

3 Months isn't too bad.. but personally I think the government authorities should be focusing their resources on more important things..

TorrentFreak just featured an update on Chan Nai-ming's final (?) fate.

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Originally Posted by TorrentFreak

Chan Nai-ming, the first man in the world to be sentenced to jail for using BitTorrent has taken a second appeal against his sentence to the highest Court in Hong Kong. Chan made his first appeal against his original sentence of three months in prison in 2006, but lost the case.

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:source: TorrentFreak: http://torrentfreak.com/jailed-big-c...appeals-again/

Egad, Hong Kong acting more like commies than mainland China? Say it isn't so.

poor guy. they were bad movies too :P

Wow, that sucks. Can downloaders meet the same fate?

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Originally Posted by shthap3ns

Wow, that sucks. Can downloaders meet the same fate?

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as far as i know that matter is only civil, not criminal