[ news_security_news ]
First Successful Copyright Violation Case
John Stith
Staff Writer
2005-11-07
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
A Hong Kong hack is headed to the hoosegow for three months in what is the first successful prosecution of copyright violation in the world. The pirate got caught offering movies using the BitTorrent software.
Chan Nai-ming, 38, is the first person convicted for illegal, online filesharing of copyrighted material. Nai-Ming was convicted of posting movies to his website. The movies included "Miss Congeniality," "Daredevil" and "Red Planet." The charge was "attempting to distribute copyrighted material without authorization."
The industry felt the need to see the Hong Kong courts go after this guy and they obliged him. As this is the first case in the world, it's safe to expect other courts to go after these folks pretty heavily.
The Hong Kong courts wanted to make their intentions plain. The AP quoted Magistrate Colin Mackintosh saying Chan's act greatly hurt the interest of the copyrighted material's owner although he did not make any profit from uploading the movies onto the Internet.
"The message has to be sent out by courts that the distribution of infringing copies, to the prejudice of copyright owners, particularly by seeding films into the Internet, will not be treated leniently."
This, combined with the recent shutdown of Grokster in its current state, marks major changes in the file swapping industry. But this behavior will continue as long as there's a market for it.
About the Author:
John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security.
More news_security_news Articles
Insider Reports RSS Feed
|
|
iEntry 10th Anniversary
RSS
Archive
