| Title | Pirate Needs 200,000 Video Views to Avoid Being Sued | |
| Date | Friday November 27 2015, @08:35PM | |
| Author | n1 | |
| Topic | ||
| from the shill-for-freedom dept. | ||
A convicted software pirate has been handed an unusual punishment. The man, named only as Jakub F, will be spared having to pay hefty damages - as long as a film denouncing piracy he was made to produce gets 200,000 views.He came to the out-of-court settlement with a host of firms whose software he pirated after being convicted by a Czech court. In return, they agreed not to sue him. The 30-year-old was also given a three-year suspended sentence.
The criminal court decided that any financial penalty would have to be decided either in civil proceedings or out of court. The firms, which included Microsoft, HBO Europe, Sony Music and Twentieth Century Fox, estimated that the financial damage amounted to 5.7m Czech Crowns (£148,000). But the Business Software Alliance (BSA), which represented Microsoft, acknowledged that Jakub could not pay that sum.
Instead, the companies said they would be happy to receive only a small payment and his co-operation in the production of the video. In order for the firms' promise not to sue to be valid, they said, the video would have to be viewed at least 200,000 times within two months of its publication this week. A spokesman for the BSA told the BBC that the stipulation was to ensure that Jakub would help share it as widely as possible. But, if the video did not reach the target, the spokesman said that - "in theory" - the firms would have grounds to bring a civil case for damages.
The YouTube film, currently at over 450k views means Jakub should avoid any further legal action.
[Editor's note: SiKing also submitted this, but not quite in time to get it merged with the other already in the queue.]
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printed from SoylentNews, Pirate Needs 200,000 Video Views to Avoid Being Sued on 2024-04-25 08:13:32