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BBC reports that computer programmer Philip Danks for has been jailed for 33 months after recording Fast And Furious 6 from the back of a cinema after a judge in Wolverhampton ruled that the defendant uploaded the movie, which was downloaded 700,000 times. As well as putting the film on the internet, Danks offered to sell copies of the film using his Facebook profile.
The judge who sentenced Danks said his behavour was "bold, arrogant and cocksure". Police said that Danks had continued to illegally distribute movies after his arrest in May last year. Fraud investigators quickly traced him after they noticed his online ‘Thecod3r’ tag attached to the video was identical to his profile on dating site Plenty of Fish. Danks was arrested by police after a special ‘webwatch’ team was set up by LA-based Universal Pictures, who raided his home in Bloxwich, Walsall on May 23 – less than a week after the video surfaced online.
The court heard that despite making some money from sales of the film on Facebook and by personal delivery his real motive was ‘street cred’. "The first person with a pirated version attracts much kudos," said Ari Alibhai, prosecuting on behalf of the Federation Against Copyright Theft. "He wanted recognition from the community."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by tathra on Sunday August 24 2014, @09:01PM
the problem is that a lot of people support the works by buying them, because they want to see more of them in the future, but only hate the heavy-handed restrictions (so they download the DRM-free version so they can actually enjoy the product they have purchased). if they stopped buying, the customers would be punished because the works they wanted would no longer be created, but the restrictions would continue in all future creations, until the company went completely out of business.
"voting with your wallet" doesnt work when the creators can't understand to which part you're objecting, and its not like sales reports come with reasons why people are buying or not buying.