James Delahunty
7 Nov 2005 14:22
A man in Hong Kong has been sent to prison for copyright infringement for uploading copyrighted movies using BitTorrent. He was handed down his three month sentence for uploading Daredevil, Red Planet and Miss Congeniality. He is the first person in the world to be prosecuted for sharing files using BitTorrent according to authorities. The movie industry hopes that this case, which managed to gather large media attention, will deter other BitTorrent users from continuing this activity.
The man, Chan Nai-ming, who's nickname was "Big Crook" was arrested in January for his offenses. The MPAA estimates that the film industry loses more than $900m in Asia alone anually due to piracy. The Hong Kong authorities hope that the case will deter other users, but the BBC's Hong Kong correspondent Chris Hogg said that since the man was first charged in April, there has been no noticeable impact on file sharing.
There also is the problem of the time it takes to build a successful prosecution, making it impossible to carry out an effective crackdown on Internet pirates. Last December, the MPAA filed several lawsuits against BitTorrent trackers to attempt to undermine the ability to swap movies quickly and easily.
Source:
BBC News