Update: US jails Aussie internet pirate

June 24, 2007 4:32 PM

As an update to this thread on the Aussie software pirate who was extradited to the US to face charges, he was sentenced to more than four years in a US jail today.
posted by UbuRoivas to MetaFilter-related at 4:32 PM (19 comments total)

The update is not really worthy of an FPP in its own right, imho, but I thought people would be interested as it generated a bit of discussion. I tried to add it to the end of the thread, but it's been closed to further comments. Dunno if you can help out, mathamyntex?
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:32 PM on June 24, 2007

Actually he was sentenced on Friday (courts generally aren't open for sentencing on weekends).

/nit-pick
/looks-down-nose-at-Aussies-blindly-cutting-and-pasting-wire-story
posted by falconred at 5:24 PM on June 24, 2007

Yes, that journo was quite lazy in his cutting-&-pasting, hey?

OTOH, even though the article carries a dateline of Sun 24th, the URL suggests it's a story from Saturday: [...]/2007/06/23/1182623714013.html, which would have been Friday in the US, so probably technically correct when written.
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:10 PM on June 24, 2007

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
posted by caddis at 6:42 PM on June 24, 2007

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
posted by caddis at 6:42 PM on June 24

may fate be as merciful to you as you are to others caddis
posted by Optimus Chyme at 6:58 PM on June 24, 2007

Americans really love to shove people in jail.
posted by chunking express at 7:53 PM on June 24, 2007

chunking express: Americans really love to shove people in jail.

When my great great grand father Ebenezer Agogo came to America, he had two nickels and dream. A dream to open a jail just to shove people in. That man loved to shove people in jail. Of course back then there weren't as many things to shove people in jail for.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 8:08 PM on June 24, 2007 [6 favorites has favorites]

I bet he's one happy ghost.
posted by IronLizard at 8:13 PM on June 24, 2007

"Don't do the crime if you live in a country with an extradition treaty with the US" just doesn't have the same ring to it, though.
posted by kindall at 8:15 PM on June 24, 2007

Americans really love to shove people in jail.

Watch out, snarky sarcasm is a shoveable offense.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:37 PM on June 24, 2007

Four years with time served, so he's only in for 15 months.
posted by delmoi at 11:06 PM on June 24, 2007

My family came to Jamestown with one dream: that their privileged descendants could one day create a land where they could build an industry and have the government protect said industry with incredibly strong laws. The day when Rockefeller opened fire on his own employees, I knew that dream would be complete. If it wasn't for the courageous agents who prosecuted this case, people wouldn't make music or movies, because as anyone knows, music and movies didn't exist before industry associations and government lobbying.
posted by geoff. at 12:01 AM on June 25, 2007

I thought you said SHAVE people in jail.
posted by fleacircus at 12:20 AM on June 25, 2007

He should have murdered someone. He'd probably have a lesser sentence.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:38 AM on June 25, 2007

may fate be as merciful to you as you are to others caddis

There are laws against software piracy. For whatever reason, he chose to engage in software piracy, and I doubt it was because he needed to feed orphaned koalas. He was caught. He pled guilty. Now he's going to serve a sentence. If it weren't for the extradition aspects of this, it wouldn't be much of a story, and a four-year sentence seems fairly light.
posted by Midnight Creeper at 11:57 AM on June 25, 2007

four-year sentence seems fairly light

For software piracy? People could probably get less time for rape or manslaughter.
posted by chunking express at 12:27 PM on June 25, 2007

For software piracy? People could probably get less time for rape or manslaughter.

Depriving rich people of money is worse than hurting or killing some random poor person. Apparently.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 8:45 PM on June 25, 2007

Depriving rich people of money is worse than hurting or killing some random poor person.

What would an appropriate sentence have been? Six months? No time served? A fine? A paddlin'? Removal of a body part?
posted by Midnight Creeper at 9:33 AM on June 26, 2007

A fine?
posted by chunking express at 10:04 AM on June 26, 2007