Look: link (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061212/tc_afp/hongkonginternetpiracy)

Basically, a person from Hong Kong has had his appeal rejected and that means a prison time for him.

serves him right for posting crap movies.

Prison sentence to someone guilty of internet piracy is simply useless waste of money, it's not like the guy's going to be threat to society. Large fines for the guy are is a much better and more profitable solution.

Guh. Someone really needs to shoot copyright already...

That's Hong Kong. Human-rights mean a whole different thing there than around here. They already watch the Internet traffic and, since joining China, I wouldn't be surprised if they censor it too.

Which is one, very important reason to encrypt your connection. Always remember to use https:// and SSL when you can. Regular scare -tactics otherwise.

Cúchulainn, I thought that too :D

serves him right for posting crap movies. Yes. 3 useless movies. IIRC Red Planet wasn't that bad (not very good too) but other 2 are certainly crap...

IMO those who upload Paris Hilton's "movies" should be imprisoned too.

one thing to remember, is that every bit torrent user is guilty of the same crime, because it removes information from your computer without requesting access first or requireing you to actually make that file available:

Chan Nai-ming did not purposefully distribute the films for other web users to download theyre jailing him eventhough in essence what is happening is that other users are stealing the movies from his computer

Guh. Someone really needs to shoot copyright already...And our hypothetical someone needs to kiss innovation goodbye.

And our hypothetical someone needs to kiss innovation goodbye.Yeah - because of course profit is the only possible motivator for ever creating anything new. :rolleyes:

Yeah - because of course profit is the only possible motivator for ever creating anything new.No it's not, and no one other than you has tried to imply that it is. But why should an innovator pour his or her heart and soul into a creation, only to see snother person make money off of it? THe interests of the inventor have to be protected. The problem is, that basic concept has spun wildly out of control to the point where the only interests being protected are those of corporations who have pretty much nothing to do with the creative process (and we won't get into innovations like new medicines and such here).

Copyright laws shouldn't be scrapped, but they do need to be wildly revised to accommodate the current context.

First: I don't like the look on what drives human beings implied in the 'only profit motivates' theory. While it may correctly mirror-image the motivations of those who make the argument, it suggests in the ultimate consequence that saints, or people like mother Theresa, were ultimately just vain or egoistic. Too cynical for my taste, and in most instances injust as any mono-causal explanatory model is doomed to be.

Second: On topic, imagine these scenarios, Chev: There is a film on tv, which you record on video, or DVD. Legal. You load up and re-calculate the data from tv into a digital format, and burn it on CD. Legal? The same evening, you download the same movie using torrent and burn it on CD or DVD. Legal?

Mind we're not talking about a new movie yet to hit or just in the theatres, but about old stuff. Legal technicalities aside, try to explain the person for any of those examples why what he did was legal or illegal. My experience suggests to me that most people will have a hard time accepting that beyond: 'Well, it is as it is!'.

money isnt the only way of profiting from something, im sure saints had their reasons, but they were far from selfless

from tv for personal use, ok. Spreading on the internet, no that is stealing. It is a thin line but i does not matter how you sell it. Did anyone even read the warning on dvd's. The moment he uploaded it, he was guilty. Prison? why not.

theyre jailing him eventhough in essence what is happening is that other users are stealing the movies from his computer Oh please, anyone who uses Bit Torrent knows that to upload anything, you have to add it to your client’s upload list *and* have a tracker for the file(s). Bit Torrent just doesn't hook on to your computer and upload anything people want. This guy *ment* to upload those crappy movies.

The only way people could have "stolen" the movies off his computer was if the files were on a tracker that needed a 'passkey', and they managed to hack the passkey. Which, I highly doubt anyone would go to that much trouble for 3 lousy movies.

But...ummm...I don't know anything about torrents... :rolleyes:

As to his sentence, he only deserves jail time for distributing movies with Ben Affleck and the chick from the other movie....he doesn't deserve jail time for using Bit Torrent. :nono: :rolling: