RSSBitTorrent User Convicted of Piracy
By Nate Mook | Published October 25, 2005, 1:16 PM
A 38 year-old man from Hong Kong has become the first person convicted for sharing copyrighted material over BitTorrent. Chan Nai-Ming used the P2P technology, which requires you to distribute what you are downloading, to share Hollywood films "Daredevil," "Red Planet" and "Miss Congeniality."
Nai-Ming was arrested last January and pled not guilty to the charges of copyright infringement. He was convicted after a four-day trial and released on bail until a sentencing hearing scheduled for November 7. Nai-Ming could face as much as four years in jail and a fine for his actions.
In a statement to local media, the Hong Kong government praised the ruling and said it was the first step to cracking down on illicit P2P usage in the country. Customs officials claimed that since the arrest, file sharing had dropped by a whopping 80 percent.
BitTorrent the company -- founded by computer programmer Bram Cohen who designed the technology -- recently secured $8.75 million in funding, but faces an uphill battle to shed its pirate image. The technology is currently used almost exclusively for the illegal distribution of copyrighted material by end users.
BitTorrent itself is not the culprit, however. It is simply a communication protocol that facilitates efficient distribution of very large files. On the flipside, it is not uncommon for those particular files to be copyrighted music, movies or television shows.
This spring, the entertainment industry joined federal agencies in cracking down on illicit file sharing occurring on Web sites used as "trackers" to aggregate BitTorrent files.
Sweden, notorious for its lax copyright laws, also reported its own anti-piracy milestone Tuesday. A Swedish court ordered a man to pay the equivalent of $2,000 for using a P2P network to distribute a movie online. Officials called the ruling "a very big step forward" that "sends a very strong signal to file sharers."
All your everything are belong to us. Why? Because we are hackers. Put something, anything within our community and it is belong to us.
You laws don't scare us, your anti-piracy software is laughable (including you, Microsoft). So don't even try.
Because all your everything belong to us. All your nuclear detonation codes are belong to us.
Bye Bye, Bush. All your red detonation buttons are belong to us. Yes.
All the planet are belong to us.
Score: 0
|Ah poor guy caught red handed with some of the worst movies ever "Daredevil," "Red Planet" and "Miss Congeniality."
Score: 0
|As mentioned by Hong Kong Guy, it appears this case is not about BitTorrent as such, but is about the defendant having copyright materials on his computer for distribution.
"The prosecution is NOT on the point BitTorrent but "transfer copyrighted content into computer and distribute".
So he may have been arrested for having copyrighted information on his computer. The BitTorrent angle may just be a publicity stunt for the recording industry.
Score: 0
|All your files are belong to us...
Score: 0
|ADD:
all your life belongs to us
all your thoughts belong to us
all your worths belong to us
all your behaviour belongs to us
all your belief belongs to us
all your children belong to us
all your rights belong to us
all your money belongs to us
we can do whatever we like with you - cause we are the money breeders, the have-it-ones.
we make our own laws
we make our own justice
we make our own worths
and if you don't comply with our demands, we'll get you anyway. cause we make the governments, too.
And if ever you dare to utter this, they will declare you insane and put you away, never to open your mouth again.
But, as you can see, if you look down this page to all the comments, most people are already taken and guided on an invisible leash from the outside and they don't even realize - no they lick those boots, hoping to make their cut as well. All this is the beginning of the "brave new world", the coming tyranny that shows up in these and comparative events all over this world right now.
Expect much worse to come . . .
Score: 0
|I'm Hong Kong Citizen though I don't know Mr. Chan, he's widely supported by the local users for selfless sharing.
The prosecution is NOT on the point BitTorrent but "transfer copyrighted content into computer and distribute".
But IMO, if the movie is so good, why not buy a DVD instead of wasting time to download? If it's not good then it's not worth watching.
Score: 0
|what about the Long deleted stuff you cannot BUY
Even if one wanted to
Score: 0
|It's hong kong people. i dont think we have anythign to worry about here. well not for now. Just like Kazaa and all the others. There will always be a what to steal legal music, movies, games ect.
Score: 0
|Our "Hong Kong Case" will be a good example for others governments to refer with, so try not speak so bold.
I'm also BT user but I didn't download XVID movie and MP3 because the quality is so bad, I make them myself if I need a backup.
Score: 0
|file sharing is not a crime unless you are doing it for copyright material and besides you wont know unless you downlod it to see if its copyright or not, hello anyone can name a file anything! stop the internet and then no piracy! sleep in your cozy bed you law agencies
Score: 0
|Very true. But it's not the downloading that they are prosecuting for. It's the uploading. You KNOW what's in the file you are uploading.
Score: 0
|They arrested somebody sharing in a communistic China? I thought sharing was like being a social communist! :)
Score: 0
|HK is not exactly communist, at least not yet. In 2047 it will be.
Score: 0
|Hong Kong WAS controlled by China Communist Party (government), otherwise every year's 1-July we don't have over several thousand of people on street parade.
Largest one was on 2003-7-1, 0.5 millions of Hong Kong people against the "article No.23", this No.23 content was against the freedom-of-speech.
Hong Kong is rule by businessman, but the China government can "do something" to Hong Kong government if they want.
Score: 0
|Sharing is caring, and it can be fun! :D
Score: 0
|holy ****in s*** man...
i was in love with bittorrent. I DONT WANT IT TO GO AWAY :( i have like 500Gb of downloaded stuff
and im sorry to say im gonna stop seeding it.
this really is a shock to me and should be one to all bittorrent users
Score: 0
|someone busted for sharing copyrighted material is a shock to you?
Score: 0
|To find a peer om BitTorrent you have to DOWNLOAD
Score: 0
|"Daredevil," "Red Planet" and "Miss Congeniality."
Erm... Putting this guy in jail might actually be doing him a favor.
Score: 0
|HAHA damn right!
If your gonna steal don't steal s***e
Score: 0
|I dunno. Red Planet I like.
Score: 0
|he should get the chair for downloading those movies
Score: 0
|I sincerely hope you are joking. We should be more concerned with drugs, rapists, and murderers... Not the loss of profits to some millionaires.
Score: 0
|Exactly, he lose his job more than a year.
The most famous COPYRIGHT organization in Hong Kong is:
1) Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong Limited (CASH)
2) International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI)
Score: 0
|Actually the fact is not what you say:
More concerned with celebrities, copyright, monopoly, terrorist ... less concern about drugs, murderers, robbery, rapists (Police budget decrease year by year in whole world, didn't you know?)
Score: 0
|You apparently missed the joke in the above post.
Score: 0
|Got the joke, just his reply might have been misleading to those that really don't understand the 'larger' issue.
Score: 0
|What are you blathering on about? Is that more sarcasm I hear? I really can't tell because it's not clear English. Sorry for any misunderstandings. No, we need to be LESS concerned with celebrities, copyright. MORE concerned about monopoly, terrorist, drugs, murderers, robbery, and rapists. Our local police and sherriff budget has gone up steadily by about 15% each year for the past 8 years, I don't know what YOU are talking about.
Score: 0
|No. I still don't think you get it.
The joke was that those movies were so horrible, he should get the chair for his bad taste in movies.
Score: 0
|Wow, what s**t luck to be convicted of sharing such terrible films.
Score: 0
|Great they're cracking down on file sharing. Now who's going to crack down on the people that spam me trying to sell me software or perscription drugs at a good deal. Oh ya, wait no one seems to think anyone looses money from that. But than again it makes money for companies that make anti-spam software. Sad when all anyone is concerned about is the bottom line rather than the happines of the users.
Score: 0
|Thanks to record and movie companies and the likes, many officials only see this as a 100% piracy tool, which is a shame because there are many legitimate software distributions that use the technology to cut costs.
Score: 0
|True, like the popular game World of Warcraft, and many distros of Linux..............
Score: 0
|Thats true, but this guy was caught sharing copyrighted movies.
so...
Score: 0
|Can you lobby for extra punishment when sharing out such bad movies?
Joke LOL
Score: 0
|ya, they were just saying, that in the past, RIAA has been trying to shut down P2P, including the BitTorrent programs, with the mentality that nothing there is legal. This time BetaNews says "BitTorrent itself is not the culprit, however. It is simply a communication protocol that facilitates efficient distribution of very large files."
Looks like they are finally acknowledging that they are wrong and that not all uses are illegal. I've got mine open right now, uploading knoppix.
Score: 0
|Wasn't the extra punishment having to actually *watch* them?
Yes, I'm making a giant assumption here that he had actually seen the movies....in which case, he's either a cruel sadist, a moron, or at the very least has incredibly bad taste.
Score: 0
|Ha ha. I thought watching them was our punishment for being stupid enough to waste time download it in the 1st place.
Score: 0
|Nice.
I had SUSE uploading 24 hours a day all last week.
I'm a huge fan of Torrents for linux distros. I prefer them to normal http or ftp servers because I usually get a better download rate, and it helps save the hosts money.
Score: 0
|yeah, that's why i keep mine open too, as long as there's a nice upload speed from my end, then i'll keep a torrent active, it's really the least you could do to help give back to the open source community, but it helps you and others at the same time, along with less demands on their servers.
hell ya!
Score: 0
|yea i thought the other movies sucked but red planet was cool and bit torrent is great
Score: 0
|