October 25, 2005 9:09 AM PDT
BitTorrent user convicted over movie sharing
- Related Stories
-
Supreme Court rules against file swapping
June 27, 2005 -
BitTorrent enemies face new hurdle
May 20, 2005 -
RIAA files new round of P2P lawsuits
November 18, 2004 -
Labels aim big guns at small file swappers
June 25, 2003 -
File-swapping foes exert P2P pressure
August 13, 2002
Chan Nai-Ming was found guilty of distributing three Hollywood films using BitTorrent's peer-to-peer file-sharing technology, according to Taiwanese English-language newspaper The China Post.
The unemployed 38-year-old used the software to distribute the copyrighted films "Miss Congeniality", "Daredevil" and "Red Planet." He was arrested by customs officers in January 2005.
Nai-Ming pleaded not guilty to copyright infringement but was convicted after a four-day trial. He will be sentenced on Nov. 7.
BitTorrent is one of the most popular software programs used to acquire large files over the Internet using peer-to-peer file-sharing technology. The application, initially written by programmer Bram Cohen, is open source.
BitTorrent enables its users to download fragments of a large file from many other users, rather than just one. Although the program had relied on centralized tracker files to manage this process, Cohen in May announced that the files were no longer needed. BitTorrent has increasingly become a distribution channel for spyware and adware, and has grown into one of the most widely used means of providing large files for download.
File-sharing networks are coming under increasing pressure from the law, while increasing traffic has sparked a clampdown by recording companies and movie studios, which have sued thousands of peer-to-peer users for copyright infringement over the past few years. The Supreme Court ruled in June that peer-to-peer makers could be sued if they encourage users to copy material without permission.
Karen Gomm of ZDNet UK reported from London.
See more CNET content tagged:
BitTorrent,
Bram Cohen,
copyright infringement,
P2P file sharing,
P2P
If the movie industry was smart, they would be looking for digital distrobution much like iTunes / Napster and this would be much less of a problem.
I'm as opposed to the entertainment industries as the rest of you pirates, but we as users have got to stop making these dumbs**t arguments to justify our actions if we want to have any respect and credibility at all.
If I were a senator and presented with two sides on this issue:
Industry: "we made the content and people are stealing it online."
VS
Consumers: "the content is crap and we can't download it legally so we are entirely justified in stealing this content which is so crappy it should be free anyway (but we still want it)"
I think I'd have to spend all of about 2 seconds deciding the industry is right and filesharers should be penalized.
We're hurting ourselves with stupid comments like these.
__________________________________
R.K.
http://www.Remove-All-Spyware.com/
Sounds like the author wants to spread FUD about BitTorrent.
By BT's nature, while you are "receiving" you are also "distributing" (unless you are truly leeching and not sending packets back to the swarm).