26yo Daniel Dove has become the first person ever to be convicted by a jury for using BitTorrent to illegally distribute copyrighted material.
It was on May 25th, 2005 that federal authorities first busted the famed EliteTorrents BitTorrent tracker site following the pre-release leak of a “Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith” workprint.
Called Operation D-Elite, it was part of a nationwide federal crackdown against the illegal distribution of copyrighted movies, software, games and music over P2P networks. So far it’s resulted in the convictions of seven former leading members of EliteTorrents. Fellow admins, Scott McCausland, Grant Stanley, Sam Kuonen, and Scott Harvanek, all pleaded guilty to similar charges rather than take their cases to trial.
Now Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich has announced that 26yo Daniel Dove has become the eighth person to have been successfully targeted by the Department of Justice and the first person ever to be convicted after a trial by jury in the US for using BitTorrent to engage in criminal copyright infringement.
A federal jury in Big Stone Gap, Va., convicted Dove, formerly of Clintwood, Va., on one count each of conspiracy and felony copyright infringement.
The jury was presented with evidence that Dove was an administrator of the site’s “Uploaders,” who were responsible for supplying pirated content to the group. The evidence showed that Dove recruited members who had very high-speed Internet connections, usually at least 50 times faster than a typical high-speed residential Internet connection, to become Uploaders. The evidence also showed that Dove operated a high-speed server, which he used to distribute pirated content to the Uploaders.
Dove’s sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 9, 2008 where he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
a nationwide federal crackdown against the illegal distribution of copyrighted movies, software, games and music over P2P networks using BitTorrent.
At its height, EliteTorrents attracted more than 125,000 members and distributed about 700 movies, which were downloaded a total of 1.1 million times.
As a former member of the site (it was for journalistic purposes only) I can tell you without hesitation that it certainly was one of the best, if not the best, BitTorrent tracker sites of all time.
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- EliteTorrents Admin To Serve Jail Time
- EliteTorrents.org Hacked or Shutdown?
- Man involved with BitTorrent (site EliteTorrents) pleads guilty to copyright theft
- Filesoup Admin Busted for Copyright Infringement
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Sexual predators get less time kind of shows you where the governments priorities lie.
@MR
Yep rape is only like 7(?)
Short video using media recorded around the release of Sith documenting the perception of piracy in relation to Star Wars.
http://noneinc.com/sound/Thee_Backslacpkping_With_Media/
File Name: %20-BSWM-SithPiracy.mov
I hope he rots in prison for the rest of his natural life… water-boarded every hour of every day. P2P is stealing and is worse than murder!
It’s nice to know that downloading stuff illegally is worse than rape. =)
*looks for women to rape and children to molest*
What a load of SH*T! As I always say “It’s not innocence or guilt it’s how much money you have and can spend”. On one hand I can’t believe the US government devoted time to this on the other it just shows me anything is possibly under King Bush and minion Cheney! This just proves that our government under Bush cares more about big business since they (big business) are the ones that fatten their pockets the most! I HATE AMERICA! I am so embarrassed to be a citizen of this pathetic look out for only the rich people country! Our President and Vice President are oil men who only look out for big business. Why else would Bush veto a bill to stop giving the oil companies $12+ billion in tax breaks! God help us if McCain becomes president! He is Bush’s mini-me! All young people get off of your asses and VOTE! If young people vote then Obama will win. We DO NOT need another rich old white man as president again! (I am Caucasian and I BELIEVE THAT!) We need to do something about this guy getting prison time. What a joke! Our prisons are already overflowing with pointless drug cases. We don’t need more people in prison that had no reason for even being tried! Lets stand up and protest email write letters and start petitions! Lets put something on the ballot that changes copyright law. Show the fat cats that we won’t stand for big business pushing us around because they have money for lobbyist and bribes! This should be the straw that breaks the camel’s back! We will not stand for one of “us” being put in prison with rapist pedophiles and murders because some greedy extortionist company wants even more money because they’re not happy with the billions in profits that they already make every year! I SAY STAND UP!!! FREE DANIEL DOVE! FREE DANIEL DOVE! FREE DANIEL DOVE! FREE DANIEL DOVE! FREE DANIEL DOVE! FREE DANIEL DOVE!
“kill.rhythm” You are a loser! If you are so against P2P why are you on this site?!?!
But this perv only got 5 years! So it’s safer to get child porn then this. BULLSH*T!!!
June 27 2008
Kentucky Man Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Receiving Child Pornography
Mark Doane of Independence Ky. was sentenced today to five years in prison for receiving child pornography. U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman also ordered Doane to serve 25 years of supervised release.
@Adam
Kill Rhythm is being sarcastic.
Looks like things will get worse until people stop vote for politicians that are on the MAFIAA payroll.
What a sick country. The same people have also made oil price speculation legal; look what has happened!
PLEASE send these bastards home!!