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posted by n1 on Sunday August 24 2014, @02:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the it-doesn't-look-good dept.

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."

 
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  • (Score: 1) by CirclesInSand on Tuesday August 26 2014, @05:59AM

    by CirclesInSand (2899) on Tuesday August 26 2014, @05:59AM (#85599)

    Why not 9 years, 364 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes of copyright? Why 10 years? You are the one claiming to be "sane". Give me a sane reason why 10 years exactly is the correct answer.

  • (Score: 1) by jbWolf on Wednesday August 27 2014, @10:40AM

    by jbWolf (2774) <jbNO@SPAMjb-wolf.com> on Wednesday August 27 2014, @10:40AM (#86152) Homepage

    Actually, I answer that question (sanely) in two different ways on the page that I linked to in my website. In the second to last paragraph under the introduction, I state:

    Why ten years? It seemed like a good round number to cover most if not all cases (including those outside of writing scripts and novels). I know arguments can be made for longer periods of time. There are also arguments being made to abolish copyright all together. There are good points on each side of that debate and I am keeping an open mind. Until I am convinced otherwise, I am going to push for ten years.

    Under "Additional Reading" at the very bottom, I even throw in some science. Dr. Rufus Pollock of Cambridge University states that he thinks the optimal copyright is 15 years and he's done a mathematical analysis.

    I short, I stated ten years so there was a good starting point for discussion and debate. Actually, if you read the introduction in its entirety, you'd have a good idea of what I was after. If you have better ideas (even if it means abolishing copyright entirely) please do tell! I'm all ears!

    --
    www.jb-wolf.com [jb-wolf.com]