A 31-year-old Raymond man who said he was “completely embarrassed and ashamed,” for illegally downloading copyrighted movies, games and software on the Internet, received two years of probation from a federal court judge on Friday and was ordered to complete 200 hours of community service.
Ryan Porter, who pleaded guilty in August to criminal copyright infringement, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Seattle. He was among 37 people charged during a federal undercover investigation called “Operation Copycat,” intended to crack down on online piracy.
“I deeply regret my lapse in judgment and disregard for the law. I accept full responsibility for the crime I have committed and will do whatever it takes to make sure it never happens again,” Porter wrote in a pre-sentencing letter to the court. “At the time of my crime I was in a state of mind that what I was doing was ‘OK’ as there are so many millions of people doing the same thing every day.”
Porter said he knew what he was doing was illegal, but said he justified his actions because he also bought many of the items he downloaded. Porter admitted to downloading 68 copyrighted works from March to June this year, including “Star Wars,” “National Treasure,” “Batman Begins” movies, Microsoft and McAfee software, and video games such as “Medal of Honor,” “Grand Theft Auto” and “Doom 3.” He said he downloaded items only for personal use.
