Hong Kong newspaper The Standard reports on what seems to be the world's first case of a BitTorrent movie pirate being sent to jail. (Others have been jailed for related crimes.) After losing his appeal against a November 2005 conviction, Chan Nai-ming, a 38-year-old BitTorrent user known as 'Big Crook,' has begun serving a prison sentence for making the films 'Daredevil,' 'Miss Congeniality,' and 'Red Planet' available for download via BitTorrent. His appeal was based on the fact that he did not profit from the piracy.
From the article: "[Appeals Judge] Beeson noted [convicting magistrate] MacIntosh, in handing out the sentence, was fully aware of the noncommercial nature of the case, but measured the seriousness of the case by the harm done to the moviemakers — not by the gain made by the offender. Chan, and those in the chatroom, 'were aware of the possible criminal implications of uploading films to the system,' Beeson wrote. She also noted the sentence was already drastically reduced, from a maximum of four years, to three months, in order 'to reflect the novelty of the conviction.'
Link: SlashDot
From the article: "[Appeals Judge] Beeson noted [convicting magistrate] MacIntosh, in handing out the sentence, was fully aware of the noncommercial nature of the case, but measured the seriousness of the case by the harm done to the moviemakers — not by the gain made by the offender. Chan, and those in the chatroom, 'were aware of the possible criminal implications of uploading films to the system,' Beeson wrote. She also noted the sentence was already drastically reduced, from a maximum of four years, to three months, in order 'to reflect the novelty of the conviction.'
















I am sure that these studios have plenty of fat thumbs in pies in countries like Hong Kong and said they would not make films there unless he got banged up.
Hong Kong loses money, it's cheaper to send them to jail thus do as the studios wish.
That is too harsh a sentence for what the guy did.
He got what he deserved but.
He got what he deserved but.
I'm sorry to nitpick dude, but you're using the word 'but' when you mean to use 'though'. In a sentence, the word 'but' is always followed by a rebuttal of the statement that came immediately before it. Your use of the word makes your sentence seem incomplete and skews the entire meaning of what you're trying to say.
Just bothers me, that's all. But now you know.
He got what he deserved but.
I'm sorry to nitpick dude, but you're using the word 'but' when you mean to use 'though'. In a sentence, the word 'but' is always followed by a rebuttal of the statement that came immediately before it. Your use of the word makes your sentence seem incomplete and skews the entire meaning of what you're trying to say.
Just bothers me, that's all. But now you know.
The usage of 'but' seems fine to me. I don't agree with your statement that "the word 'but' is always followed by a rebuttal of the statement that came immediately before it". It can be used to contrast ideas or give an exception to the preceding clause.
Consider this sentence: "The sky is blue but the clouds are white." No rebuttal going on, and the sentence sounds fine.
I think Lt-DavidW meant the 'but' on this part:
Also, lol @ the magistrate MacIntosh.
Lets lock up the horrible computer user and throw him in with the murdurers and rapists where he belongs.
Lets lock up the horrible computer user and throw him in with the murdurers and rapists where he belongs.
yeah being rich sucks
But the judgments were sometimes unfair. I'm feeling that the majority of the punishment is the political factor than the justice.
I have 2 cases to compare with the case mention.
First. 2003, the singer Nicolas Tse drove and crashed his car in Central, and asking his driver to admit the accident was made by him. He was charged for obstruction of justice and sentenced to 240hrs of society service.
Second. 2006, Chan Kau-Tai, the former chief engineer of HK Housing Authority committed corruption for years which reaches the total amount of HKD$3M and he was sentenced 6 years imprisonment.
The punishments in the 2 cases mentioned were just too light!
If you have the money and power, you can hire a lawyer who can help you escaping from severe punishment, or even from being judged guilty.
"Everyone were fair under the judge of law." Save it.
Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!
Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.