Guy Who Uploaded Star Wars Wearing An Ankle Bracelet, Banned From Using Linux
from the such-a-threat dept
When discussing how silly it is that the movie industry freaks out about people uploading movies online, we often point to the case of the last Star Wars movie. That movie was leaked the week before the movie came out in the theaters and was downloaded by fans around the world — and yet it only seemed to get people more excited to go out and see it in the theaters. There were huge lines and theaters sold out left and right. That’s because it’s the same thing that many of us have been saying for years: going to the movies is a social experience. People want to go out with their friends and have fun and see a movie in the theater (that is, if the theater makes the experience worth while and doesn’t treat them all as criminals or children). However, what we didn’t know about that Star Wars example is that one of the guys who uploaded it (and you can bet that it was more than just one guy) ended up getting arrested for doing so and eventually he plead guilty to ‘conspiracy to commit copyright infringement’ and ‘criminal copyright infringement.’ For that, he ended up in jail for five months with another five months of home confinement. The home confinement part includes an ankle bracelet he needs to wear. I’d challenge the movie industry to explain how this can possibly be fair, given the fact that there’s almost no evidence his actions did any real damage. However, here’s where it gets even better. As part of his home confinement, he agreed to install some tracking software on his computer, so his probation officer could track what he’s doing (and, presumably, to make sure he’s not uploading more stuff). Only problem? He’s an Ubuntu Linux user and the gov’t doesn’t have any tracking software for Linux. So he’s been told that he must use Windows for the term of his confinement. He did plead guilty so he has to accept the punishment — but all in all it really does seem like the punishment is excessive given the actual damage caused.
Comments on “Guy Who Uploaded Star Wars Wearing An Ankle Bracelet, Banned From Using Linux”
banned
Forced to use Windows, clearly cruel and unusual punishment. Can we get him some help here? Where’s the ACLU? This is unconstitutional.
Re: banned
i never thought of that, i’m not a linux user, but he shouldn’t have to swich OS’s just to please the court.
Re: banned
Re: banned
Why force him to use windows. Wouldn’t they just cancel his internet connection?
Re: banned
he’s white, ACLU could give a shit less about him.
And it gets worse
i don’t want to sound like i am backing the movie industry, because i’m not, but he got caught. the thing that bugs me is the fact that the punishment is completely idiotic, i can understand a fine, but imprisonment and home confinement, thats just stupid. anyway thats my opinion.
Re: And it gets worse
the part where he plead guilty shows just how stupid things were
judge was probably hit politically and financially to ‘ensure’ a punishment, no doubt
Re: And it gets worse
Another example of laws who’s only purpose is to protect big corporations cash flow.
granted, while there are a lot of things that are worthy to protect, i really dont think this is one of them.
i got busted for hacking way back when. Wasn’t really doing anything special, just some goofing off. Didnt think it was a big deal, so I didn’t really hide anything. Mostly was connecting, patching the holes and moving on. Keeping the faster connections to piggy back scan off of.
Found out that I could go to prison for 3 years. Go figure. Anyway, as one of the stipulations of my probation (i had gotten 3 years probation) I wasnt allowed to use the internet.
Luckily a friend of a friend knew the judge and got that portion removed, but for about 4 months, i was banned from the net.
Wasn’t allowed to even be in the same room as someone else.
2 years later I was able to get back all of my equipment (including intact hard drives) as well as all my backups, some of which were clearly things they shouldnt have given me back.
So, long story short, when the courts are technologically inept, forcing these kinds of sentences is pretty stupid.
Besides, 2 pc’s, one with the monitoring crap running winblows, another running what he wants.
whooppity do.
what?
can he use windows to ssh into a linux box? how would the government know if they can’t track linux activity. i think i agree with ricki, he should litigate for damages of having to use windows.
No problem.
Use a cheap windows pc to log in to his linux machine. Somewhat limiting, but if it’s only for 6 months…
That’s our government for you. Justice. For Big Money. By Big Money.
Re: No problem.
Use a cheap windows pc to log in to his linux machine. Somewhat limiting, but if it’s only for 6 months…
i’m willing to wager a vital component of my reproductive anatomy that a big piece of the tracking software is a keylogger, so you can SSH all day long from winblowz, but every keystroke (and username, and password, and URL) is logged and retained BEFORE it gets encrypted and sent.
Re: No problem.
Or he could just have a friend bring a live cd for him to work off of. This would go undetected as windows would never be touched, and if he logs into windows every so often to check email or whatever the govt would have no idea that he isn’t behaving appropriately.
Does the court have to provide him that windows OS or does he have to go out and buy one. with the cost of an OS that could be just wrong.
Re: who pays
thats something that i want to know
Re: Re:
I don’t think going out and buying one is an option 😉
If they are track what he’s doing on the Windows box then they can still track his keystrokes. They didn’t say anything about FreeBSD… this isn’t Linux so would that be a violation of probation or would this be breaking DCMA anti-circumvention laws?
oh yeah and one more thing… Who is paying for that Windows License?
pwned
looking at the “actual damage caused” should not have anything to do with the crime. if you’d consider no actual damage being caused as grounds for minor punishment, what would you consider fair punishment for attempted murder charges? “sure, he tried to kill her, but he didn’t succeed so no harm no foul.” ??
and yes, forced to use Windows does fall under cruel and unusual punishment. I love the government policy of “we’re not advanced, so you shouldn’t be either.”
Mike, how can the movie industry prove damage? Sure, the movie made money, but did it make as much as it could have had this not been leaked? I know, you will say free publicity, obviously people from the studio side will disagree. You generalize that people watch movies as a social experience. Some people watch movies at home, by themselves (and I don’t really want to meet folks who watch porn in a group setting (not that there is anything wrong with that)). Some people only rent movies and never go into a theater. If I had a copy (a good, studio version) I probably would not buy or rent it in the future.
Another issue I have is that while I agree that someone recording a movie with a video camera probably isn’t doing much harm and I agree with you that theaters and studio’s shouldn’t waste their time with enforcing this, the guy in this article uploaded a screeners copy to the web. You can’t say on one hand not to punish people with cell phones because its not as bad as industry insiders posting the film and then say that an insider shouldn’t be punished for posting the film.
Re: RandomThoughts
Some people watch movies at home, by themselves
Some people only rent movies and never go into a theater.
Then, these people would not be part of the damages the studio would worry about. Video rental companies have to license the movies they rent, so even if someone has a pirate copy that causes them to never rent it, the movie people still get their money.
You can’t say on one hand not to punish people with cell phones because its not as bad as industry insiders posting the film and then say that an insider shouldn’t be punished for posting the film.
To quote Mike, above: He did plead guilty so he has to accept the punishment — but all in all it really does seem like the punishment is excessive given the actual damage caused.
Re: Re: RandomThoughts
Video rental companies have to license the movies they rent, so even if someone has a pirate copy that causes them to never rent it, the movie people still get their money.
Soooooo…hypothetically speaking,
If I rent a movie, burn a copy, and upload it to my computer to share with my friends, this would be legal, since the video company paid the money for the license?
WINDOWS!
one word
‘vmware’
anti-trust
I didn’t suspect that the gov’t would be supporting a M$ monopoly so openly.
Hello LiveCD.
Haha
this is so easy…
go ahead and install winderz.
as a dual boot.
do some stuff that gets logged, keep them happy…
then reboot into linux and upload all day long.
then before bed do some more surfing under winblows and get it logged.
cant do the time....
dont do the crime. that 5 months at home could easily have been another 5 months in the pokey. and they could have said no computer at all, so suck it up and boot windows for 5 months and just dont do anything illegal with your computer and your all set, or is that too much to ask for? probably. even further advice would be get some decent books and read them, if your uploading star wars to the internet you really need some computer down time to begin with. just for uploading that piece of crap you should have got the death penalty…
Cruel and Unusual?
Come on.. 5 months in jail and 5 months house arrest anyone can handle.. Having to install windows is cruel and unusual punishment!
Ubuntu on a stick
’nuff said
So basically,
bad guys now know one more government weakness to exploit.
wtf?
I think it’s time for the government to STFO of our lives, I mean really…this is ridiculous. As punishment you must adhere to the social norm and use windows. Next thing they will force him to use the AOL browser and dial up.
New Internet pucnishmnets for crime
Maybe we need to re-think how we punish people for Internet related crimes.
Perhaps forcing someone to use AOL with Dial-up would be an effective tool in reminding other people not to screw around.
Spammers could be forced to become manual spam blockers and search every piece of email making sure no spam messages get through.
We could even force someone to sit in jail on Second Life for hours everyday. Think of the costs we could save with virtual imprisonment! lol
See it now
I can see it now, tomorrows’ paper: ” Guy gets 5 more months in jail for pirating windows. Microsoft is outraged, and is seeking the death penalty”
Wait a minute...
What if you have an old Macintosh that can’t install Windows? Will the government give you a free computer too?
The Descent
The United States has clearly become topsy turvy… Prison for uploading a movie. The velocity of our descent seems to increase with each day…
For all those suggesting a workaround...
It sounds to me like he is trying to abide by his sentence, which is a good thing for him overall. If he is caught breaching his probation, it’s back to prison for him, and I’m certain he wouldn’t want that.
But… Wouldn’t the software run under Wine???
EtG
You kiddies just don't get it
What he did is a crime. The person who leaked it broke the law as well. All you kiddies out there broke the law too by downloading it. They let the
You guys all think that stealing other peoples property, whether it be intellectual or not, isn’t a crime and actually creates more business for the people the crime was made against…so breaking the law is a good thing right?
Wrong.
Why so complex?
The windows restriction is just dead easy to get around without all this dual boot, ssh, and whatnot. If you have a friendly neighbor with a wi-fi just get a laptop then connect wirelessly to you friendly next door friend. The gov’t can monitor the windows machine all they want..or at least until it crashed.
It’s a MOVIE…..ok guilty…lets say his action was the sole cause of 100 people not going to see the move, bad boy tax him with s 10x factor. lets guess the studio gets $7 a ticket (I don’t care what it is so don’t google it). So 100x$7=$700 x10=$7000.
Jail time? Are you crazy? If every company exec that was guilty of approving a $700 ripoff of a person or company went to jail the prison population would suddenly jump to 60% White rich guys.
Dear Author:
In non-fiction material, a paragraph starts with the main point, followed by sentences with supporting details. The non-fiction paragraph goes from the general to the specific to advance an argument or point of view. Each paragraph builds on what came before and lays the ground for what comes next. Paragraphs generally range two to eight sentences all combined in a single paragraphed statement.
Or, in net-speak: Learn2rite n00b!
Re: Dear Author:
“In non-fiction material, a paragraph starts with the main point, followed by sentences with supporting details. The non-fiction paragraph goes from the general to the specific to advance an argument or point of view. Each paragraph builds on what came before and lays the ground for what comes next. Paragraphs generally range two to eight sentences all combined in a single paragraphed statement.”
I couldn’t have put it better myself.
Unfortunately though, in this Internet age, it is not considered necessary to have any knowledge of correct English usage. (Or whatever the official language is in your part of the world.)
Things like grammar, spelling, syntax, punctuation and other rules of a bygone age are, apparently, no longer necessary.
i gess i shood get with the times and stop wurrying abot this stuf doood!!!!!!!!!!
Re: Re: Dear Author:
You have no idea how human language operates.
Go ‘n git yerself a intro to linguistics textbook.
There is no correct usage of any language, less said
utterance is unintelligable between given speakers of a given language. Guess what we call it when that happens? Sometimes its known as a dialect or a language.
There are however dialects that are considered more or less prestigious than other dialects.
Grammar and Syntax are pretty much the same thing unless you are from the pre-chomsky 1950’s. Syntax varies from language to language and dialect to dialect.
Spelling and Punctuation are add-ons to human language. They are entirely arbitrary in nature. Oh and guess whaT? they change too. For example, lets look at how much english has changed in the last oh……..600 years.
Eft he axode, hu ðære ðeode nama wære þe hi of comon.
Yay!! Old English. can you natively read this? no.
what anonymous coward and dear author have wrongly committed is however a logical no no. what? Attack on the Person. this is when you attack something extraneous to the person you are debating (like the way they write or talk) instead of attacking their argument.
And if either of you are linguists, shame on you! stop being skanks. if not,….whatever.
Re: Re: Re: Dear Author:
DOOD! U R so rite! I hate when ppl try to tell me how to writ an spel an shit! they muz B fookin dinosors or some shit! things change get over it! there is no rite way to writ or spel so my way is all ways rite! fook off! an i use my own diktionary 2 so my words all ways what i say they do so whut ever i say is all ways tru 2 no matter whut i say! grammer sux! i rulez!
Hmmmmm
I think everyone’s overlooking the true crime here, and that is the 10 or so dollars and 2 hours 20 minutes that were stolen from millions of people for this crappy film. And it happens every day.
Re #24
Hey post #24, don’t give them any ideas.
They are backwards enough to end up going for that.
I am once again ashamed to be an American.
No tracking program for Linux.
How very very sad.
As for #30 and anyone else who still thinks that way.
Please, for the love of gawd learn the difference between stealing and copyright infringement. They are two different types of ideas.
One post long ago from somebody on here sticks in my mind.
You leave your car in the driveway overnight.
Over that night I come to your drive and use a machine to make a perfect copy of your car.
You wake up in the morning, and its still there, unharmed.
I did not steal it.
Thats how it works.
It is copyright infringement though.
At least, that is what I garner from everybody’s posts, Techdirt employees as well, over the past long long while reading many a thread here.
Gov. Promoting a Monopoly?
Can the Gov tell you you can only use one companies product? There has got to be some ethical issue there….
Seems to me copyright infringement is a crime. How else does someone end up in jail? Doesn’t matter if you call it stealing or not, you still can go to jail.
Re: Re:
Seems to me murder is a crime. How else does someone end up in jail? Doesn’t matter if you call it larceny or not, you can still go to jail.
Come on…think before we post, hm?
ROTFLOL
All I can say is that the first comment was the best. Being forced to use Windows is definitely cruel and unusual punishment.
Only rent and burn to your hearts content, DON’T SHARE WITH ANYONE! Give your friends as many copies as you desire of the physical disc or hand off you 500 gig hd with 70+ movies and let them burn and return thhe hd of course.
I’d start a blog about how dumb the Feds are so the people monitoring his PC are forced to read it.
Being forced to use windows for five months is cruel and unusual punishment to a linux user.
A shame.
This entire article is shameful on a myriad of levels!
1. Paragraphs would’ve really helped while reading this.
2. An Ubuntu user and he couldn’t spoof his tracks so as not to get caught?
3. Forced to use winblows, I just can’t fathom this as being OK.
For shame for shame for SHAME!
No thank you on this tracking software mr. probation officer, I’m just going to take up reading for a while.
Re: A shame.
2. An Ubuntu user and he couldn’t spoof his tracks so as not to get caught?
Yeah, so? Ubuntu was designed to be easy to use so why would the person running it necessarily have the technical know-how to cover their tracks? I don’t get it.
Although, I will agree that it doesn’t seem right to make him change OS’s. Shouldn’t that be in the Constitution somewhere? Kind of like freedom of religion? Freedom of OS? 🙂
Morons
All of you complaining that he’s having to use Windows are morons. If you need a computer so bad then you need to obide by what the court says. You technically could live without a computer believe it or not. For instance, if you get a DWI and the court orders you to take a breathalizer every time you get in a vehicle, then YOU have to pay for the breathlizer machine in order to operate a vehicle, not the court. Even if you were to say, have your own machine, You have to use what the court tells you to and buy whatever they tell you to. It’s either their way or the highway. So if he is whining about using Windows…call the damn Wham-bulance. If you can’t pay the punishment, don’t do the crime.
Re: Morons
If you can’t pay the punishment, don’t do the crime.
Ya, like Rosa Parks… Maybe he’s trying to make a point about dumb laws..
Wouldn’t a court ordering someone to only use windows be similar to the government enforcing a monopoly? Im sure that if they had forced him to use linux and not Windows, Microsoft would throw a fit and probably start waving the constitution around like they gave a darn.
Punishment of any sort is just plain stupid. 10 years from now people who went to jail for copyright infringement will look back on their experiences like those who went fighting for civil rights. Hopefully the RIAA and the MPAA really are losing as much money as they claim so that they can become unprofitable roll over and die. Its the only way for a new paradigm to replace the ridiculous system currently used for media distribution.
Intellectual Property
Yeah you’ve got such a great point….intellectual property rights are so retarded. I mean spending millions of dollars and precious time to work on something to have it spoiled by some kid and punishing him for it is SOOO wrong. You’re talking about two different things. What Rosa Parks did and someone stealing is completely different. If you’re curious as to how, you may want to consult with your state law book or even your religious sects laws. I mean if we listened to your comparisons why don’t we just compare anne frank to bonnie and clyde.
Re: Intellectual Property
The story was about someone convicted of copyright infringement. I didn’t see anything about theft in it, so what’s this “stealing” you’re ranting about?
Re: Intellectual Property
you may want to consult with your state law book
you might want to take that advice yourself, consult some law books and discover that the guy didn’t steal anything, he wasn’t charged with or convicted of theft…
Hmm…uploading a movie… 5 months… my friend trafficking some illegal drugs…… 2 months….. is something wrong here?
Re: Re:
Hmm…uploading a movie… 5 months… my friend trafficking some illegal drugs…… 2 months….. is something wrong here?
Yeah, maybe you need to get new friends.
Actually, seems to me making him use Windows makes good sense. I bet they got that idea from the guys down in Cuba. “Hmmm, we can’t make the guy watch us flush the Quran down the toilet, what can we do to really piss off a techie? I got it, Windows!”
This is really pathetic.
The punishment is excessively harsh (not just the windows bit either).
I know people are calling this stealing, but that’s bullshit. When you steal something from somebody, they’re generally hurt as a result of it. Like somebody stealing your lunch money or your precious ipod.
Nobody is hurt by this. The industry is just overly greedy. They know damn well this will only help to promote the film. Like the article said, I’d bet anything that it just got more fans hyped about seeing the film in theaters. Not to mention that only Star Wars fans would waste their time downloading the new Star Wars film, and they’re usually the ones who would repeatedly see this flick at the cinema anyway.
I’m sure I’ll see this film eventually, but I’m definitely not going to rush to spend my money on it after reading this.
i think having to use windows is/was punishment enough so jail time and home confinement is really over kill.
Frankly...
This punishment does not fit the crime. I agree that he should have been punished however how does home confinement relate to copyright infringement?
And quite frankly I would give up the net for the term of confinement. Can’t track what he’s not doing. I get the feeling that he agreed to the monitoring of his computer activity under threat of getting a much larger sentence if he didn’t.
Nicholas Wright is Stooo-ped!
Since you guys began changing the subject to what is proper grammar I thought I’d give you a nice subject to boot.
Back on topic…Nicholas Wright you are as the title says, stupid. People are hurt by what this guy did. You’re chalking everything up to big Hollywood showbiz names as the only profiteers from this movie. You forget that there are sound crew, camera operators, light crew, etc. They are being robbed of their royalties by things like this so it’s certainly like someone stealing from you. I’m not a Star Wars fan, in fact I hate Star Wars. This is about the fact that some dude took the movie and uploaded it before it came out, regardless of what movie it was. Your claims have no merit. I can easily prove that a film’s numbers can be hurt by this action on any movie. You however can’t prove that “nobody is hurt by [uploading the movie before it’s released]”. As Maddox would say – “Ditch this bullshit!”
Re: Nicholas Wright is Stooo-ped!
not as Stooo-ped as you for thinking everybody on the movie, sound crew, camera operators, light crew etc… get a piece of the royalties
Sysadmins beware
What if this guy was a network/system/etc admin for a company that uses Linux? Sure, he’s confined to home, but in the real world network admins do a LOT of stuff via SSH/RDP/VNC/etc anyway. If he can’t use linux, but is or was a linux sysadmin, doesn’t this mean they’d be preventing him from doing his job, literally?
I suppose the moral of this story is to be extra careful and not piss off the MPAA if you rely on linux for your job.
That’s like being sentenced to riding a moped and eating Jack in the Box for 30 days straight…your fat, sweaty and get beat up by grade school kids
simple
use Linux if they cant track it how would they know a cruel and unusual punishment indeed esp for a Linux user. who was this judge Bill Gates. my answer would be i will do ten months stuff your ankle tracker and your windbloz.
Can we all agree that it’s unreasonable for the government to require this guy to donate his spare cycles and bandwidth to a a spam-spewing botnet?
Of course, the court isn’t explicitly demanding that he get his box zombified….
only in the US...
Another proof that you Americans get the government you deserve.
The bad thing about is, that some US laws have an influence on people outside the US, even those who never visit the US.
Anyway, my views on the issue:
* According to US laws, the guy committed a crime and should receive a just punishment.
* If you don’t like the law, don’t break it but change it. That’s what they call democracy.
* If part of the punishment is installing windows-only monitor software and he is known by the judge to be a linux user, then the judge (or the experts he consulted) should have known that in effect he totally prohibited the use of his computer.
* My conclusion: there is a conflict in his punishment, and this is the stuff that landsharks find yummie. The last word isn’t said yet.
Re: only in the US...
We yanks are kinda ornery sometimes. When we can’t get the law changed, we sometimes resort to other means. Remember when we kicked your butts out? That’s what I mean.
Well a simple way to get past the keylogger is to switch to something like dvorak.
Since Rosa Parks was brought up, what, now operating system choice is now considered an alienable right? Hey, why don’t we get this included under the disability acts laws, that seems appropriate.
I didn’t know that the courts had to worry to much about the hardship that was placed on a convicted person. I guess the ACLU will have to get involved in this.
He can still run ubuntu. Just run it from the live CD. The keylogger won’t be loaded as Winblowz isn’t and they will just think he left his computer off. There are also distros the run from a usb stick. You could also buy an iPhone 🙂 hehe
Hrdware Keylogger
Why didn’t they just install a tamper-evident hardware keylogger on his machine? Oh, wait. I forgot, having to use Windows was part of his punishment.
He needs therapy
We’re talking about a guy so deluded that he felt the need to share one of the prequel Star Wars movies.
I’d say he needs therapy for his chronic bad taste and not punishment.