woman to pay 11M in software scam

Sweet

probably won't pay like most scammers

12clicks busted her

98 million dollars worth of illegally imported software. sounds a lot like high level drug trafficking.

maybe I should unistall kazaa

I love to 'buy' software there

She'll spend 6 months in minimum security prison, err 'correctional instituion' after which time she'll be released and free to reacquint herself with her Swiss bank account and live like a queen.

Yeah, I wonder if she actually cleared much more than the fine, in which case the fine is just a "cost of doing business."

Hargh.

Any idea how much time she'll actually do? I can't imagine she'll only do 6 months on a 9 year sentence. I wonder how much cash she has socked away. Doing 2-3 years in a federal minimum security prison and paying a fine isn't that bad a deal if you get to hide a few million in untaxed liquid assets.

Exactly

Learn from the warez sites, DON"T FUCK WITH MICROSOFT! It an't worth it!

9 years seems a bit harsh. you get that for murder in my country.

Sammy

Ya leave it to Americas corporate whores (the congressmen) to make what should be a civil matter (copyright infringement, not fraud, not theft) a criminal matter.. And the ridiculousness of the sentences is unbelievable.. Manslaughter is a lesser sentence than warez.

Cheers,
Backov

The federal system is much different than most state systems.

If you get sentenced to 10 years - you'll be lucky to get a year off of that.

I believe the law requires federal prisoners to serve at least 85% of the time you are sentenced to, but if it isn't that by law - it is that in practice.

You just don't get good time like you can in some states.

Most laws have a maximum sentence. Take a law that has a maximum sentence of 20 years.

In MD - Robbery has a maximum sentence of 20 years. In this state - a hjudge can sentence you to 20 years or 1 day - or nothing if he wants.

There is nothing you can do about it either way.

Theft of property in MD is up to 18 months for anything under $300 - $300 or over - it is up to 15 years.

If you steal a tastykake - one judge could sentence you to 18 months - and for another crime of stealing $10,000,000 - a judge in Maryland could sentence you to 1 year. Judges have great discretiion.

Not so under the federal sentencing guidelines.

There is a chart in the back of the book with 6 columns and 42 rows.

Row 1 is for like littering in a national park and row 42 is for assisnating the president.

Then the add or subtract numbers based on variou factors.

Money is a huge factor.

If you counterfit one MS Windows CD for example - there is no way you would go to jail for more than 6 months unless there are a lot of other factors involved.

Counterfit thousands of them and you are looking at a minimum that is much greater.

White collar crimes that have lots of money involved can go to prison for a long, long time.

William McCorkel was originally sentenced to 24 years in prison sue to the fact of the large amount of money invloved.


http://www.williamkent.com/McCorkle%...07-12-2002.htm

In short - if you get caught in the federal system - you are usually in big trouble.

My point was that copyright infringement is (was, and should be) - a strictly civil matter. It's not theft, despite what the MPAA and RIAA would have you believe - it's infringing a copyright, which was always a civil matter until Disney and the rest bought some legislation (DMCA)..

Thanks for the insight into the sentencing bit, but it doesn't make my disgust for this law any less.

What would you say is worse? Distributing 1000 copies of Microsoft Office ($400k) to pirates who aren't going to buy it anyway (no lost revenue) - or killing someone. The law says the piracy is worse, a lot of the time. Bullshit.

Bend over for the corporate masters, and start giving money to the EFF.

Cheers,
Backov