The two-year case against the distributors of Kuro, Taiwan's most popular peer-to-peer (P2P) software, ended yesterday with unprecedented prison sentences for its distributors and one of its users. "Kuro violated copyright law by offering members software with which to download MP3 music," said Liu Shou-sun, a spokesperson for the Taipei District Court which heard the case. While the court neglected to adjudicate the legality of P2P software, it found Kuro responsible for encouraging its members to illegally trade copyrighted content through advertising. In addition to NT$300,000 fines for each of its top three executives, chairman Chen Shou-teng received a sentence of two years in prison while CEO James Chen and general manager Victor Chen were each sentenced to three years. The court also handed down a four-month prison term to Chen Chia-hui, a member that used Kuro to download more than 900 songs, likely setting an explosive example for Kuro's other estimated 500,000 users. Ruby Hsu, an attorney who represented IFPI in the Kuro lawsuit, said that the judgment brings Taiwan up to international judicial standards. "This verdict follows international cases such as those against Kazaa and Grokster," Hsu said, referring to recent court judgments against the two major P2P providers in Australia and the U.S. "The foreign courts have decided that if you offer a P2P service and you know a high percentage of the songs that are traded are copyrighted, you have to take responsibility." Read the Rest:
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Note to self, don't go to Taiwan
I'm still waiting for my summons here in the US. I here Canada is nice this time of year.
How dumb is this? for sharing you get jailed!
Talk about a police state. 3 years for distributing/creating software and encouraging people to download free content? I once thought about visiting Taiwan someday. I'm definitely not going now.
i cant imagine going to prison and saying to your inmate that you were busted for filesharing.
i have heard of a bit of a code of respect, or lack of one, between innmates. more specifically, pedophiles getting beat up/killed for being a pedophile. i can imagine the possibility of being ignored for not really being a criminal if you are a file sharer in prison. i could also see it going the other way for being a pussy.
Reminds me of that promotion a while ago, where the scarred, tattooed, muscley criminals were at the mess hall.Originally Posted by Signa
The one says "I got time for armed robbery,"
the next, "Got mine for assault,"
another goes, "I killed a man."
Finally the third turns to a pudgy, balding, bespectacled man, asking, "What're you in for?" to which he replies nervously,
"...littering."
Next thing you know they're all backing away, and the murderer's like, "Hey man it's cool, take my lunch!"
You mean prison is their only punishment?
Hey, 3 hots and a cot.
Prison.
Where everyday is a holiday.
Too bad they weren't in Singapore.
Or Malaysia.
Then they could have also been taken out for a caning.
*
lol i think this is similar to one of thoes times in china where they burn stacks of pirated DVDs but dont really care about all the pirated stuff. Taiwan is just pulling a publicty stunt to make them look like they are good too and will crack down when in reality they probably dont really care and they execs will be getting out early on "good behavior" or some other loophole like that
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