Two music pirates get jail terms

Two men have received jail terms of between 6 to 15 months for distributing pirated copies of music on the Internet through their release groups. George Hayes, 31, a member of the release group "Chromance," or "CHR," received a 15 month jail sentence after pleading guilty to criminal copyright infringement. He was sentenced by US District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia. Separately, Aaron Jones, 30, was sentenced to six months in prison and six months' home confinement.

Along with another man, Derek Borchardt, 22, Jones pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement during his involvement with a release group known as "Apocalypse Crew," or "APC." Borchardt was sentenced to six months' home confinement for his involvement with the group. Another alleged APC member, Matthew Howard, 24, is set to be sentenced next week.

These are the first federal criminal sentences for members of pre-release music groups that stemmed from the FBI's Operation FastLink, which targeted professional piracy groups on the Internet. The FBI had help from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in its investigation.

Source:
Yahoo

Written by: James Delahunty @ 19 May 2006 19:43

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8 comments

malcdogg

Lifer- "Whachu in for man?"

Pale computer guy- "I uploaded music."

Honestly, I would feel a bit embarrassed to tell people that's why I was in. It would look better on a job application then burglary, though. "Conspiracy to commit copyright infringement".

15 months is ridiculous, people have gotten that sentence for murder. George Hayes got screwed.

19.5.2006 21:17 #1

nonoitall

Remember - it's a legal system, not a justice system.

19.5.2006 21:31 #2

borhan9

I agreed with everything in the article untill the RIAA was mentioned. But if these are proffesional piracy groups, then they should be more wiser than that.

I don't know why anyone would buy the material in the first place when you can get it for free anyway.

20.5.2006 13:40 #3

StarKatz

Funny that, why make stuff that can be copied?
Why make CD-R/W and DVD-R/W then if the laws say NO.
Gee, takes me back to when they gave us the VHS and said it's illegal to copy movies yet, in their next breathe they say record when out so you don't miss your favourite TV show or movie.
Duh! Not to mention the old cassette tapes that many of these Judges perhaps also illegaly recorded stuff like Ben E King etc lol..

Lets face it, if you put out a song and someone gets it and downloads it you still get famous! Not only famous but there are many Artists out there that shouldn't even be given the credit, they don't write the music half of them, and some can't sing for S*&*.

Ahh Milli Vanilli.. lol.. remember them!

:)

20.5.2006 21:34 #4

StarKatz

20.5.2006 21:36 #5

Stitch15

I agree to a certain extent with all that has been posted. Talentless f*ck sticks ala Britney, Milli, and a cast of thousands are making millions off of songs that they haven't written. Some of them don't even sing. But they are all recording material that was written by someone. I have to plead ex smoker on this one. Yeah I used to do it. But, I do make part of my living "now" writing. (alot of these artists get pseudo writing credits which are purchased from the writer and publisher as well) Ergo I don't download mp3's anymore, (poor idea for job security if you want to write) but, I do get alot of cd's sent to me now. I can understand why people want to and why people do download. I would never tell anyone not to. (If you're going to do it, make sure you download every Metallica song you can just to piss Lars Urlich off)

The other blurb.........the people that actually write the music are the the ones that get hit. They're not in the Enquirer every week. They don't get the clothing deals. They're not at the slick parties snorting coke out of strippers navels. They are not who the RIAA are fighting for. I live in Canada, where downloading and filesharing are still legal. I like it when everything is legal. Hell we can download copied music here but we can't smoke pot. Priorities out of order or what. I'm not crying poor boy writer either. I don't make a living writing music. While some of my music has been published and rights have been sold to music companies, none of it has been recorded by major acts as of today.

Do I have a point? Depends on how you look at it. If you really like a band, odds are that you will buy their material. If you like one song, (in this age where most bands last approximately that long) you'll probably download it. Are you wrong. Not from where I stand. I have seen limited internal operations of a couple of music labels. There is no way that downloads will ever screw songwriters as bad as the labels do.

Regards,

Stitch

Sig by DVDBack23

21.5.2006 15:09 #6

GrayArea

"professional piracy groups"?

Did these particular release groups SELL any copyright materials? If not, I don't see how they can be tagged as "professional". I'm sure that tag helped prosecuters get longer prison sentences.

Now prosecuting the RIAA citing the RICO act, THAT makes sense, as THEY ARE RACKETEERS imho.

22.5.2006 13:21 #7

sammorris

I'm not saying no man/men/woman/women/things/beings/presences/evil spirits should be put into jail for breaking copyright legislation, so this story doesn't bother me too much, but 15 months? Dear, dear, aren't prisons overcrowded these days?

26.5.2006 15:10 #8

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