MPAA helps land criminal conviction in P2P piracy case

The Motion Picture Association of America has helped convict an administrator for EliteTorrents.org, a peer-to-peer site, of felony copyright infringement and conspiracy, the U.S. Justice Department announced Friday.

Daniel Dove, 26, of Clintwood, Va., was the first criminal conviction after jury trial for peer-to-peer copyright infringement and the eighth overall resulting from a federal crackdown called Operation D-Elite that targeted administrators and people who provided content that was distributed through the BitTorrents hub.

The case began in 2005, when federal agents raided and shut down the popular Web site that had distributed copyrighted music and movies, including Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. At that time, Homeland Security agents from several divisions served search warrants on 10 people around the country suspected of being involved with the Elite Torrents site, and took over the group's main server.

According to prosecutors, EliteTorrents attracted more than 125,000 members and assisted in the illegal distribution of about 700 movies, which were downloaded more than 1.1 million times. According to the Justice Department, Dove led a group of "uploaders" that supplied pirated content to the group, as well as recruiting members with ultra-fast broadband connections to become uploaders. Prosecutors also said Dove operated a high-speed server himself.

The MPAA "provided substantial assistance" to the investigation, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Dove faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in September, the Justice Department said.

Scott McCausland, who used to be an administrator of the EliteTorrents server before the raid, pleaded guilty in 2006 to two copyright-related charges over the uploading of Star Wars: Episode III to the Internet. As a result, he was sentenced to five months in jail and five months' home confinement.

McCausland--a Linux user--reported in 2007 that the terms of his sentence meant he would have to install Windows if he wanted to use a computer during his probation.

[Anonymous Hero]

Who cares about our crappy economy, high gasoline prices, war, healthcare, and other issues that might have a use for our tax dollars? Instead, let's blow some money on catching movie uploaders. Yeah. Let's also rename our country to the Motion Picture States of America while we're at it.

[JadedGamer]

Mod parent insightful :)

[techie2479]

I wonder how much the tab was for this investigation. And did these guys even make any money off their copyright mis-deeds?

Honestly, I'd rather the Justice Department better invest its resources, like finding and prosecuting the corporate richers who step all over the average folks to make a million. Admins running servers that distribute illegal copies of digital media doesn't exactly keep me awake at night.

[aka_tripleB]

From my light reading of title 17 two weeks ago, in order for criminal charges to be pursuded, the "distributer" needs to be making money from the transaction. Of course, I know nothing of the case, but with the entertainment industries do have a bit of a track record of distorting laws to say what they want them to say.

[JadedGamer]

Possibly the site got ad revenue thus indirectly profiting for users accessing the site for .torrent files

[aka_tripleB]

I'm fairly certain that's not covered by copyright laws.

[martini1179]

Is taking 10 years from someone's life really appropriate for a white-collar, nonviolent crime? Ten years of someone's life is too much for getting in the way of corporate profits. Funny thing, if the legal language was changed, and he was charged with "felony impeding of corporate profits," instead of "felonly copyright infringment and conspiracy," how long would people stand for this?

The corporations (and their lobbyists who help push insane copyright legislation) have too much power in America.

[gumpman155]

This is why corperations don't blong in the government, these are the very things thats distroying America and makeing America more like Amerika. I tryed to spell America the russian way. But I don't know Russian spelling. but thats kind of close to it. Corperations are about as bad as communist. This is no longer the America I know and this is no longer the America I grew up in and love. I am sorry to say. I think if America is going to be saved then we need to get off our behinds and take back the government and get it by the people and for the people again. If we don't do this then welcome to Red Amerika.

[amijs]

10 years? That is little too much for nonviolent crime. While someone can get way from violent crime, yes they have very good lawers($$$$)

[mectron]

You taxe money at work! Terroists never fear! the department of homeland security is way to busy destroying the lives of innocent US citizens, so they will not have time or money to fighiting real crime. It is much more important for the goverment to helpva "know" and "court provent" criminal organisation (THE MPAA) catch people swaping movies. The movies industry with a annual revenue of over 26 Billions is in need of help, that must be because of those dam pirates! that the annual revenue of MPAA's memebrs is GROWING every single year.

Stop this farce. Shutdown the real criminal: MPAA

I'm with most of you on this one. I think it is a missdirected use of our tax dollars when it could be spent on better things. I'm not condoning stealing anything, but come on. 10 years? Murders and Rapist get less. Once again this just goes to show that the almighty dollar drives everything in America these days. Very sad. By the way, Amazon.com sells MP3 files for 99 cents now. You own them and can use and take them anywhere. Forget about ITUNES. Sure, they are starting to do that, but my family has probably bought 300 songs from itunes collectively, and they are still a pain to try to move around.

[jdw15182003]

While I'm no friend of Corporate America, stealing is stealing. As to 10yrs it seem a little much but sentence hasn't been passed yet.

[galacticgufus]

indeed stealing is stealing. of course copy'right' infringement isn't stealing any more than blogging against the gov't in china is stealing; it's merely unprotected speech.