ESA Applauds Prison Sentences for New York and Florida Game Pirates Options

[Xbox-Scene]

ESA Applauds Prison Sentences for New York and Florida Game Pirates Posted by XanTium | August 28 18:58 EST | News Category: GamingGeneral

From the ESA press release: [QUOTE] The Entertainment Software Association today applauded the recent sentencings of two convicted pirates to significant prison time. These rulings send a clear message that intellectual property theft and game piracy are serious offenses. On August 20, 2008, U.S. District Judge Frank D. Whitney in the Western District of North Carolina sentenced Kevin Fuchs of West Amherst, NY, to eight months in prison, to be followed by eight months of home confinement during two years of court supervision. On August 15, 2008, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in the Eastern District of Virginia sentenced Kifah Maswadi of Oakland, FL, to fifteen months in prison, followed by three years' supervised release and fifty hours of community service. Maswadi was also ordered to pay $415,900 in restitution. "We commend the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, the U.S. Attorney's Offices for the Western District of North Carolina and the Eastern District of Virginia and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their work in bringing these criminals to justice," said Michael D. Gallagher, CEO of the ESA, the trade group representing U.S. computer and video game publishers. "These decisions illustrate, once again, that game piracy will not be tolerated and the extent at which these criminals will be prosecuted. The ESA and its members will continue to support law enforcement's efforts to protect the intellectual property of our industry." On January 3, 2007, Fuchs plead guilty to conspiring to reproduce and distribute copyrighted works, including entertainment software. Fuchs played a key role in the "warez scene" where he was a "supplier," whose role was to obtain pre-release copies of copyrighted software, and a "tester" who checked the functionality of pirated software after the copy protection was removed or bypassed by other warez scene members. This case was part of Operations Fastlink and Site Down, two of the largest piracy investigations conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice. The operations targeted "warez groups," which illegally distribute copyrighted movies, games, software and movies online. The Federal Bureau of Investigation field office in Charlotte, NC, handled the investigation of defendant Fuch's activities. Trial Attorneys Richard D. Green and John Zacharia of the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Klumb, along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Corey Ellis of the Western District of North Carolina, handled the prosecution. The Fuchs sentencing comes on the heels of a fifteen month sentence imposed on a Florida game pirate. On June 3, 2008, Kifah Maswadi pleaded guilty to one count of criminal copyright infringement. He admitted to selling "Power Players," which are game systems that connect directly to a television and were pre-loaded with at least 76 pirated copies of video games. From 2006 to 2007, Maswadi sold these game systems containing illegal copies of games via the Internet and earned more than $390,000 through this illegal activity. Maswadi was facing up to three years in prison but received a reduced sentence for cooperating with the government. [/QUOTE]

[vide0bug13]

serves them right, pirates are only cool of they're sword fighting on ships that are shooting cannons at each other.

[HotKnife420]

serves them right, pirates are only cool of they're sword fighting on ships that are shooting cannons at each other.

LMAO. I guess this leads us to the conclusion that ninjas > pirates

Seriously, tho, half a million is a hefty restitution. Did they really make that much, or did they base those figures against what each retail copy would have sold for?

More importantly, who's collecting the restitution? Are the developers & publishers of said infringed copyrights getting a cut, or are they still missing out?

This post has been edited by HotKnife420: Aug 29 2008, 01:03 AM

[BuforTjstass]

Good thing we got those guys off the streets, maybe they can release some rapists and murderers to make room for them in our over crowded prison system. I can see monetary punishment, community service and the like for non violent offenders, but don't agree with prison for them. Don't get me wrong, piracy is a crime, I just think something a little more constructive other than prison for non violent offenders.

[majik655]

Good thing we got those guys off the streets, maybe they can release some rapists and murderers to make room for them in our over crowded prison system. I can see monetary punishment, community service and the like for non violent offenders, but don't agree with prison for them. Don't get me wrong, piracy is a crime, I just think something a little more constructive other than prison for non violent offenders.

Agreed.

Rediculous how many people are in prison for as long as they are.

Still make them pay the fine. (of course how can they if they are in prison.)
Make them do tons of hours of community work.
Give them house arrest for a long long time, maybe monitored computer useage allowed.

Allow them to try to get some kind of job, pay taxes, and pay back restitution.

This post has been edited by majik655: Aug 29 2008, 01:28 AM

[chorizo1]

you can't let the Pirates in the Prison, because the Ninjas are there, link


It sounds more like they were the actual suppliers and leakers of a WAREZ group, fuck em.

This post has been edited by chorizo1: Aug 29 2008, 01:35 AM

[Mike4]

Good thing we got those guys off the streets, maybe they can release some rapists and murderers to make room for them in our over crowded prison system. I can see monetary punishment, community service and the like for non violent offenders, but don't agree with prison for them. Don't get me wrong, piracy is a crime, I just think something a little more constructive other than prison for non violent offenders.

I completely agree. There's no reason to have people like this filling up jail cells. What threat are they to the rest of society? Are they suddenly going to go on killing spree?

[lazzeri]

I completely agree. There's no reason to have people like this filling up jail cells. What threat are they to the rest of society? Are they suddenly going to go on killing spree?

If they do play a lot of GTA, probably. Didn´t you heard? Violent videogames can f**k your fragile little mind! :-P

[sgr215]

One things for sure, I can rest well tonight knowing these guys are behind bars.

Seriously though, It's no wonder why we've surpassed Russia as the nation with the highest percentage of citizens behind bars. While I agree something like this should be illegal it is far from a serious crime and only ends up costing us, the consumer, in the end via taxes. The last time I checked it costs us about $22,000 per year per inmate and in this case for what? Because a group distributed copies of copyrighted material and from what I understand didn't profit from it? That's pretty pathetic. Here's an idea, how about a punishment that matches the crime. I.E. Restitution and community service.

Regardless, the only thing these suits do is hurt the industry and tarnish the name of the ESA, RIAA, MPAA, etc.

This post has been edited by sgr215: Aug 29 2008, 02:04 AM

[luther349]

I completely agree. There's no reason to have people like this filling up jail cells. What threat are they to the rest of society? Are they suddenly going to go on killing spree?

err yes. i mean that lol how quickly we forget abought spam king.

[gsharpshooter]

ahhahahahahah this is so stupid they make it sound like he killed someone or beat some one to death

One things for sure, I can rest well tonight knowing these guys are behind bars.

thats kind of a mean thing to say u make him sound like a killer yet he didn't do all that bad but what i hate is that they pirated for money thats prob why he got it hard which i agree that kinda deserves something but almost a yr in jail is kind of stupid

This post has been edited by gsharpshooter: Aug 29 2008, 02:27 AM

[Heet]

Good for the ESA. Im sure this will put even the smallest dent in piracy


What they really need to do is start going after Gamefly and Blockbuster customers. That'll teach em.

[MartinC]

Yes this really desensitizes reality, but the CEO's making $$$ love it, should shoot them & then when you get 15 months for killing them applaud...I was gonna be a pirate but....

[Mr. Me]

Wow, that's ridiculous, it's shit like that that made me switch from using Windows to Linux so I don't have to deal with any intellectual property.

[TheSpecialist]

Piracy is wrong. Idiots in warez groups *should* be punished. But man, enprisonment for being member of some non-profit warez group ? That punishment is IMHO completely out of line with the crime. Why not give them a year of community work instead ? Or even 2 years ? It's not like these guys are a threat to a safe society and need to be locked up.

No, ridiculous sentences like these are purely based on greed. Even if companies lose money because of warez, does this justify locking people up between murderers and rapists ?

This post has been edited by TheSpecialist: Aug 29 2008, 03:13 AM