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Schmitz convicted of insider trading Self-proclaimed uber hacker Kim 'Kimble' Schmitz was yesterday convicted of insider trading and sentenced to 20 months probation and a €100,000 fine. Schmitz, who was arrested by authorities while on the run in Thailand in January, had been deported to Germany to face the music over stock manipulation charges.

The 28 year-old 'convicted hacker' was found guilty of insider trading of LetsBuyIt.com shares, a ruse designed to net him €1.1m. In a publicity move, which soon became a trademark of the hacker-entrepreneur, Schmitz appeared to bail the floundering website out of its debt, sending the company's shares rocketing by 150 per cent. But one day later Schmitz sold his shares at a huge profit. Today, LetsBuyIt.com shares are practically worthless. Schmitz's hacker antics were then discovered to be largely fabrications pulled from Hollywood movies.

News source: vnunet.com
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"Litigation is never our preferred course" said Edward P. Murphy, NMPA's CEO. "But when a company repeatedly demonstrates its intent, despite repeated warnings, to continue to engage in and facilitate activities it knows are causing grave harm to creators and copyright owners, there is little choice but to defend our rights through the legal system. To do otherwise would be to abandon America¡¦s music community to the pirates"
Among the numerous recording artists and songwriters whose works are being unlawfully distributed include: Brandy, Boys II Men, Dave Mathews Band, Celine Dion, Shakira, Enya, the Beatles, Shakira, Billy Joel, Destiny's Child, Alicia Keyes, James Brown, Linkin Park, Madonna, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Paula Cole, Lalo Schifrin, Henry Mancini, Johnny Mercer, and countless others.

Matt Oppenheim, Senior Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs of the RIAA, said that the litigation was a last resort after numerous out-of-court warnings to Audiogalaxy were ignored or resulted in half-hearted attempts to fix the problem.

"Audiogalaxy and Napster are cut from the same cloth," said Oppenheim. "Audiogalaxy is profiting by providing its users a library of pirated music, including today's most popular hits. Though claiming fealty to copyrights, Audiogalaxy continues to offer up virtually all of the music we told them should be excluded. The firm's sieve-like filter has been totally ineffective."

Specifically, the suit, which also names Michael Merhej, head of Audiogalaxy as a defendant, charges that:

* Audiogalaxy had ample knowledge of the massive infringements occurring daily on its system, and in fact marketed itself as the next Napster.

* Audiogalaxy clearly had the ability to control the works available on its system and acknowledged the ability to remove users, or alternatively, to exclude certain content.

* Audiogalaxy provided users with a fully integrated, centralized structure and facility, including a hub of central computers to which users connected; a continuously updated database and index of infringing sound recordings; information about file size, popularity and download speed of files; and proprietary software to facilitate efficient identification, copying and distribution of recordings.

* Like Napster, Audiogalaxy seeks to profit from its pirate system by building an extensive user base to attract advertisers and investment dollars.