Step one: The MPAA and BSA investigators allegedly purchase pirated materials from a 31-year-old Pennsylvania man between last November and January.
Step two: The investigators contact local police about the purchases made from Robert Uss, of Reinholds, Lancaster County.
Step three: East Cocalico Township police obtain a search warrant for the suspect’s parents’ house.
Step four: One week later, Robert Uss turns himself in.
Step five: 10,000 pirated discs of software, games, movies, and music are recovered.
Uss was charged, under Pennsylvania laws, with trademark counterfeiting and copying recorded devices. He was arraigned before District Justice Nancy Hamill and taken to Lancaster County Prison and placed on $10,000 bail. Uss faces up to seven years in prison and up to $15,000 in fines if convicted on the charges. No estimated value of the pirated software has been released. Uss operated from his basement using a single computer and two disk duplicators. "My understanding is that he's been running this operation for some time. Our goal is to stop piracy at its source," said Elizabeth Kaltman, communications director at the Encino, California-based MPAA.
News source: PC World
Step two: The investigators contact local police about the purchases made from Robert Uss, of Reinholds, Lancaster County.
Step three: East Cocalico Township police obtain a search warrant for the suspect’s parents’ house.
Step four: One week later, Robert Uss turns himself in.
Step five: 10,000 pirated discs of software, games, movies, and music are recovered.
Uss was charged, under Pennsylvania laws, with trademark counterfeiting and copying recorded devices. He was arraigned before District Justice Nancy Hamill and taken to Lancaster County Prison and placed on $10,000 bail. Uss faces up to seven years in prison and up to $15,000 in fines if convicted on the charges. No estimated value of the pirated software has been released. Uss operated from his basement using a single computer and two disk duplicators. "My understanding is that he's been running this operation for some time. Our goal is to stop piracy at its source," said Elizabeth Kaltman, communications director at the Encino, California-based MPAA.
News source: PC World
If they want to stop piracy at it's source then they need to look from within. I've seen music, movies, games and applications on torrent sites and other places weeks and months before they were released.
If they want to stop piracy at it's source then they need to look from within. I've seen music, movies, games and applications on torrent sites and other places weeks and months before they were released.
Yay someone agrees with me!
yeah he broke the law but surely community service and fines would be a much better option considering people do alot worse crimes and spend less time in jail..
this is just a waste of tax payers money.
yeah he broke the law but surely community service and fines would be a much better option considering people do alot worse crimes and spend less time in jail..
this is just a waste of tax payers money.
Um...10,000 discs is not just "some" discs. Its actually quite a lot.
However, I do agree with what you are saying.
yeah he broke the law but surely community service and fines would be a much better option considering people do alot worse crimes and spend less time in jail..
this is just a waste of tax payers money.
Um...10,000 discs is not just "some" discs. Its actually quite a lot.
However, I do agree with what you are saying.
One has to look at the situation though, 10,000 discs; that isn't just a 'casual amount' obtained with a little swapping between neighbours and the odd download here and there.
For the the amount he had, it tells me he must have been more than just that, a casual copier; he was a 'king pin' in regards to a pirating operation.
In New Zealand, 90% of the time, they'll ignore a person who has a couple of copied things; their greater concern are those who are selling copied cd's and dvd's down at the local markets on Saturdays and Sundays - this guy is a distributor, that is the reason for the harsh sentence.
Like I said, if it were just a couple of cds; worse case scenario, diversion, possibly some probation with community service.
"OMG YOU STOLE PROGRAMS, MUSIC AND VIDEOS! WERE PUTTING YOU IN JAIL WITH MURDERERS AND RAPISTS!"
community service or something would be a much better approach.
"a 31-year-old Pennsylvania man"
"obtain a search warrant for the suspect’s parents’ house."
HIS PARENTS HOUSE?!? anyone else notice that
Last edited by Chris Allen on 22 Jan 2007 - 22:59
Sure, pirate things for your own personal home use, but you shouldn't distribute it, ESPECIALLY for a price!!
Here's how stupid they were. They would have them sitting directly on the counter for everyone to see
On the news they showed about 6 huge boxes (crates almost) and it looked like each box probably had thousands of the slim DVD cases in it. They also busted them on some weapons charges and they'll most likely get busted for drugs because dealers were known to sit outside the store or even inside the store and deal drugs. The store would also sell cigarettes to kids.
I'm glad they finally got busted. It happened on Thursday I believe it was and the FBI have been down there everyday searching through the place. The family also sold them from their home and owned another store where they sold them from as well. Immigration has also been around because one guy came from Jordan, two others came from Morroco and a fourth guy got busted on just a weapon charge and he's from Palestine I think they said.
Last edited by NightmarE D on 20 Jan 2007 - 12:43
Over here people are smarter....a totally legal looking shop but you just have to know which ones sell pirated goods and go in and ask. Then they ask you to wait for a few minutes whilst some guy goes to the emergency stairways and takes your cd out from like an air vent or whatever..
I don't see why people pay for pirated stuff...all they are doing is supporting criminals and I think thats worse than just downloading it for your own usage. At least your not profitting from it.
Step seven: Profit!
Though whoever would SELL piracy deserves to be put in jail just for being an idiot. But does this means those Adobe Photoshop--ONLY $99! email's will stop entering my junk mail box?
and stopping him from selling them should at least lower retail software prices one dollar, right?
or do people selling that stuff not really have anything to do with how expensive software is?
HAHAHA and yeh only like 1-2billion have computers with internet
Just because you don't agree with the prices of an item or a corporation that sells those items is no reason to steal their stuff.
I would like you to spend 10 years of your life in jail and then come out and tell me what jail does to pirates. For your information, pirating software is just like stealing any product.
Would you go out and steal a ferrari because you can't afford it? Would you go and steal any product for that matter?
And you think piracy is something very private yeh..did you know your ISP stores logs on everything you do on the internet. If theres a law that will force ISPs to give up their logs then its not very private anymore is it?
There have already been cases where pirates are caught because of their ISPs giving out their logs to the RIAA or whatever.
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