Two U.S. men have been sentenced to prison terms for their participation in online software piracy, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced late Wednesday.
David Chen Pui, 27, of Fountain Valley, California, was sentenced to 12 months in prison for distributing pirated works from his own and other Web sites, and David Lee Pruett, 35, of Auburn, Washington, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his involvement in the software release group Legends Never Die or LND, the DOJ said.
Pui and Pruett each pled guilty to a single felony count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement. U.S. District Judge Graham Mullen of the Western District of North Carolina sentenced Pui on Tuesday and Pruett on Wednesday.
The sentencing of Pui and Pruett follows the recent sentencing of Franklin Edward Littel and Shawn Laemmrich in U.S. district courts in Indianapolis and Marquette, Michigan. Both Littel and Laemmrich were sentenced to eight months in prison to be followed by eight months of home confinement.
I've been interested in P2P since the early, high-flying days of Napster and KaZaA. I believe that analog copyright laws are ill-suited to the digital age, and that art and culture shouldn't be subject to the whims of international entertainment industry conglomerates. Twitter | Google Plus
