Do not upload episodes of “24,” do not face jail time
By Jonathan Schlaffer
A man who uploaded the first four episodes of the current season of Fox’s ever popular “24” series is now facing up to three years in prison, according to Torrent Freak. Fox is nearly ecstatic over the work the FBI put into this and is lavishing the agency with praise.
The FBI claims that Chicago resident, Jorge Romero uploaded four episodes of “24” back in January to a video sharing site and then proceeded to post links to the uploaded episodes on several other sites. But Romero didn’t even perform the actual conversion of the videos, he download them from “another source” and then uploaded them.
A rather humorless FBI agent had the following to say, “Romero is charged in the criminal complaint with uploading copyrighted material to a publicly accessible computer network knowing the work was intended for commercial distribution.”
The facts are simple, uploading copyrighted material to video sharing sites is illegal though it seems to work well for a certain Japanese animation style which has brought some new DVD releases to the US, but if it’s made in the US, don’t upload it to a website. It’s illegal and it will always be illegal. It remains debatable if this actually harms sales figures.
I don’t know if Mr. Romero knew this was illegal or not and frankly I don’t care, I have no sympathy for him, ignorance of the law is no excuse. I say, throw the book at him. I don’t care much for people who share shows or movies, music is a gray area for me.
Most people get caught by sharing, not downloading. Both are illegal but doing one thing is more likely to get you caught than the other.
I have summed up his actions in one word, stupid.
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Stumble It!
June 4th, 2007
Your hypocritical and ignorant attitude completely invalidates your argument. Learn how to spell “sympathy” before pretending to be smart.
You say “ignorance of the law is no excuse.” You go on to say that “I don’t care much for people who share shows or movies, music is a gray area for me.”
Listen up, moron: there is no gray area. It is YOU who is ignorant of the law. Illegal uploading AND downloading of ANY copyrighted material is illegal. I’m betting the only reason music is a gray area for you is because you’ve illegally downloaded or uploaded some copyrighted material yourself, making you a complete hypocrite.
This is insulting because it’s deserved. Don’t call people ignorant for not knowing the law and then demonstrate in the next sentence that you yourself are clueless.
And finally, to address your argument, sending a human being to jail for 3 years for doing something which is being done literally THOUSANDS of times per day by upstanding, tax-paying American citizens is wrong. Since you seem to be out of the loop: isohunt.com, torrentspy.com, demonoid.com, piratebay.org, mininova.com, torrentbox.com. If Fox has an issue with the leak, they should sue their distributor and whoever else was involved with the production of the 4 episode DVD. They are the party responsible for the leak, plain and simple.
There have been plenty of movies and TV shows even in this day and age which have managed to get through their release without a leak. Fox made a mistake by authorizing a DVD without putting in the level of oversight it takes to keep digital information secure. The responsibility lies with Fox and its distributor. Morality and law should have a context. The end.
June 4th, 2007
Music is a grey area because far more people share music. If you want to share a movie with your friends, send them the file, email them the file, hand them a disc, whatever, I don’t care about that, provided you own it and are not profiting from it, uploading to a website for potentially millions of people to see IS wrong.
We all have our own beliefs and I choose to say that people who share movies online are subject to more punishment than those who share music, I’m not saying music sharing shouldn’t be but each one should have its own penalty to go along with it.
I do not upload content, I do not share content and I buy my music from iTunes, whether you beleive I do or not is another story and I’m not going to debate the issue with you.
June 5th, 2007
Fox is broadcasted thru the air for free. outside of the episodes being posted before the air date. what is wrong?
June 5th, 2007
Jonathan, your argument is still wrong – essentially you are saying that just because loads of people do it, that all of the sudden makes it okay. It isn’t. Your attitude is deploring, and ignorant on many levels.
Begone from my RSS list!
June 5th, 2007
No, I didn’t say that, I said each should have its own level of punishment, I’ll let the courts sort that out, say perhaps a several levels… first offence, second offence, third offence the three strikes rule, I don’t know… I’m no lawyer.
But sharing music is should be less severe than sharing movies/shows.
June 14th, 2007
Jonathan, do you not understand why everyone is calling you “ignorant” and a “hypocrite”? Think about it, why should sharing movies/shows be any more severe than sharing music? They are both copywritten material.
My stand is that if you record a show from the “free airwaves” (and this doesn’t include shows from pay channels like HBO and Showtime), then you should be allowed a forum with which to share it. They’re not prosecuting me from sharing with my friends a video tape I recorded off TV, and it shouldn’t matter if they’re on-line strangers either. The same with a song you record off the “free” radio (though hardly anyone ever does that).
However, if you rip a movie or song off a commercial CD or DVD, that’s a completely different kind of legality issue. I can understand why these companies would be upset.