The guy that illegally uploaded Wolverine movie to Megaupload got 1 yr in prison
 

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00046285.html

The guy that uploaded the nearly finished workprint of the wolverine movie in 2009 just got sentenced to 1 year in prison for doing so. I doubt it will have any impact on pirating, but it is good to see people actually paying a price for their crimes.

A year in prison though? lol, seems a bit harsh...

Wow-------------Very interesting state of affairs.


1 year.

I would rather take the 1 year vacation in jail then spend thousands paying the studio/whomever a huge fine. He made off pretty good.

Christ, there are some serious crimes committed with less of a sentence. Not that he shouldn't be punished, but prison time for 1 movie, yikes. The movie and music industry are puppet masters on the level with the banks in this country.

Different tentacles of the same creature.

From what the article says this is the harshest penalty ever handed down for piracy. Maybe it will send a message.

Only 1 guy caught!?!?!

He was the guy who somehow got his hands on the print, uploaded it and then linked to it from a few other sites. It was downloaded and seeded like crazy after that, but he was the originator.

the chap who made the film should get a year in prison.

the film sucked and was over hyped.

Good point, the worse the film the shorter the sentence, one star film one year, 5 stars - 5 years, masterpiece - life.

I concur. These are some fucked up laws in the "land of free" :Oh crap

He caused maybe millions in damages.

Not really... I did nearly 7 months, for mearly being a visa overstay...

Didn't hurt anybody, didn't steal from any body, didn't sell drugs to anybody, etc...

All I did was not go home when I should... I cost America NOTHING... But I got nearly 7 months, so its NO BIG DEAL...

Wow, you actually didn't say something about poo. Congrats.

And your punishment was also too harsh in my opinion.

Yes, in retrospect, I think it WAS harsh...

However, at the same time, its a valid comparison...

Or alternatively, he helped make it the opening weekend smash it was. A work print is generally meant to be bad quality. So all the comic book fans stole the crap quality print, watched it, and then paid to go and see it in all its glory at the cinema, helping it gross worldwide: $373,062,864

Opening Weekend: $85,058,003
(#1 rank, 4,099 theaters, $20,751 average)

However, I am very pleased to see the uploaders being punished, instead of john doe IP address downloaders. It should send a message to those committing crimes.

of course there no balance to the law

if there were the execs of universal would all be serving up to 5 years in jail for the perjury they committed in taking down mega uploads song.

yeah you know the worlds priorities are straight when murderers, rapists, child molestors walk free on technicalities and lack of investigation, but hey upload a fucking comic book movie and youre in prison for a year.

LOL

they have done study after study and punishment does not deter crime.

nor does the death penalty.

LOL

I don't "hate" pirates. I understand why they do it, it is illegal and I think they should be punished. Assuming one can prove a crime was committed.

Do you not think there should be any laws or punishments then?

PS are you actually laughing out loud when you type LOL? Seems odd.

PPS too slow on your edit, LOL

I'm sure if he had uploaded a much better movie he wouldn't be getting that jail time ...

So you think pirating the film was a good idea because it helped it's box office, nevermind the fact that those "comic book fans" were already chomping at the bit to see the film on the big screen after seeing the legally sanctioned trailers, so in reality watching a pirated copy beforehand had nothing to to with box office being bigger and everything to do with box office being smaller as a large percentage of those who watched the pirated copy were no longer compelled to go to the theater or buy the dvd.

But you do think pirating should be prosecuted.

So how is life as a two headed snake? When you ooze snake oil I suspect you resell that as well?

.

so people being accused of those crimes don't deserve the same rights as the rest of us? What a dangerous world this would be without a trial process...

It's not that the uploader got too long, it's that the others (usually) get too short a sentence. What the others do or don't get has fuck all to do with the uploader rightfully getting banged up for a year.

I think that's how it should work. You upload an entire movie to the internet for everyone to download, you go to prison. Done. Should be the same with our movies in the adult industry too.

Should - Yes

Ever happen - No

Will make for some very awkward "what are you in for?" conversation in the prison yard. He may as well get his butthole widened before he goes in.

It's a weird thing -- this urge to upload a movie on the internet for everyone. What does the guy get out of it, besides some kind of sticking-it-to-the-man/Robin Hood sense of accomplishment. Or is that it?

Watched that movie on TV last night. Not worth going to jail for. It's not as bad as I was led to believe, but pretty awful all the same.

Sentence is a bit harsh unfortunately people won't understand the point that it's about illegally publishing a work worldwide before it's even had a chance to be legitimately released, and they'll just assume the man is going to incarcerate them for sharing a copy of a DVD with their friends.

No, piracy is illegal and bad. Period. I was just presenting an alternative interpretation of the chain of events.

Of course. All crimes should be prosecuted, with due process and proof.

As a side note, when one resorts to name-calling it always, without doubt, weakens one's position. Makes it seem like you cannot think of a counterpoint.

Right on time with the anti American comments. Glad your country is perfect asshole.

.

No, you're presenting yet another twisted version of reality like you often do to suggest that piracy has it's positive side. You're not fooling anyone Damian, not even yourself.


Not name calling at all, you are a slithering two headed snake. Your attempts at playing both sides of the coin to suck up to the GFY spectrum are lame and obvious.

.

That is what I wonder too. I can see why someone would download a movie they don't have the rights to. They want to watch it and are too cheap to pay. The risks in downloading a movie are pretty low, however the risk in stealing a print of a non-released movie and uploading it are pretty high and he gained nothing from it. I could see if he stood to make a bunch of money, but as far as I can tell all he got was bragging rights.

Then again, criminals aren't the brightest people on the planet.

Those terrible people trying to stop thieves. My they should all be in prison anf the pirates should be given medals for giving it away. :1orglaugh

people that molest children get less.

That's what sad about society - No fucking punishment.

I'm a good guy, never hurt a soul, but I have a lead foot and half a dozen tickets where I was speeding well over 100mph. Not once did I so much as loose my license. There's no punishment. Pay a fine, go do it again.

I bet he is so bitter right now. Being punished with jail time for what people in other countries do as a national past time.

cut his hands and head! no, i mean, this is very sad

unless the guy hacked into something or physically broke in and stole it, the sentence is stupid.

I was merely stating they have the political influence to get our government to do their bidding. I didn't say they were terrible people or that the pirates should be given medals. I even said the pirate did deserve punishment. I just believe a year in prison is too much, and that the only reason he was given such an extreme punishment is because of the strings the movie and music industry hold.

personally i wish people who speed would do a year more than some idiot uploading a movie.

how many people in this thread dont drive over speed limit?

LOL

A year for grand theft is not much.

You guys think of it as a simple petty theft but it may have cost its owners millions.

God this industry is full of retards. No wonder there is so much fail.

going further, canada offers a good example on the differences of a country that has capital punishment to a country not having capital punishment etc

people more willing to convict murder 1 etc

A year in prison is just too long, for a number of reasons.

- People commit far more serious offenses and get less prison time
- Now the taxpayer is paying for a pirate to eat, be housed, and guarded for a year
- The article makes no mention of any restitution having to be paid or any fines given with the prison sentence.

The end result is a pirate spends more time in prison than people who do far more serious crimes, we have to pay for him to be there, he pays nothing. How is that fair?

And, because of the movie not being at the release level, the movie still did almost $400 million. One could argue the man did an exceptional job at marketing the film.

yet someone who abuses a child typically doesn't even get a year in jail. i guess kids are worth less than movies in this society. pretty sad.

I know someone who got 3 years for using a credit card number.
So no I don't think this sentence is harsh.

The guy possibly committed more offenses than copyright infringement.

- He first had to steal a physical copy of the movie before he uploaded it.
- How did he get access to that? Did he commit illegal entry? Hack a database?
Violate the company's intellectual property agreement he'd signed?
- Then there is the "scope" of the offense. He provided the movie to how many people?
- Then he used electronic communication services to commit the act; a separate offense.
- Then committed that across state lines and most likely international thus broadening
the scope of offenses committed.

The reality is that if the book were thrown at him from every available angle then
he could have gotten a lot more time.

Bro that's just a crock of shit. You are basically arguing that because someone got
away with speeding that others that get caught deserve cheaper tickets.

:1orglaugh

I'm shocked to see how many people think a year is to long, this is theft plain and simple, and with it being something valued over the $1,000. mark or whatever it is, it's also a felony! he isn't someone who downloaded a movie online and seeded it, he is the reason it's online....

On another story, did you know you can now drag/drop a movie/track from iTunes onto your desktop and it's saved automatically ready to upload to torrents?
When did that shit happen?

I thought the point of digital media was to make it difficult to pirate - my bad. Back to my bday.