AfterDawn: News

Two German men admit piracy charges

Two German defendants have admitted to selling pirate copies of movies, music and games on the Internet. The men were part of an operation, FTPWelt.com, which offered pirated content to paying customers through a high-speed download service. A thrid man has denied any wrongdoing. The case opened this week in the District Court of Mühlhausen in Germany.

Investigators said it was one of the biggest cases of Internet piracy and illegal copying that was ever discovered. The men grossed about €1 million from the activity. After their arrest in 2004, the state prosecutor's office of Mühlhausen in Germany also started criminal proceedings against 15,000 users of the service.



The reasoning was simple; it was evident that the customers knowingly paid for illegal content. The two brothers can now expect a maximum suspended prison sentence of 18 to 24 months.

Source:
The Register

Written by: James Delahunty @ 16 Feb 2007 14:52

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• 9 comments

• SCAMPER

  One million euros for a SUSPENDED sentence? Sounds like easy money.

  16.2.2007 18:22 #1

• bomber991

  Originally posted by SCAMPER:One million euros for a SUSPENDED sentence? Sounds like easy money.No crap, I'll get raped in the butt every day for 18 to 24 months if someone gave me a million bucks.

  16.2.2007 20:01 #2

• thor999

  really? 'cuz I am a millionaire, and would like to take the next 24 mos off work to sodomize any willing afterdawn poster lol

  16.2.2007 20:32 #3

• chubbyInc

  wow, I think I'd turn down that million even if it was once in the butt, money ain't that important.

  17.2.2007 08:28 #4

• solarf

  Originally posted by thor999:really? 'cuz I am a millionaire, and would like to take the next 24 mos off work to sodomize any willing afterdawn poster lol
  lol, is that 24 months of consecutive sodomizing or will you be taking breaks in between?

  17.2.2007 13:24 #5

• novicebb

  It is funny how so many of these news sources have spelling errors. "Thrid"? WHat the hell is that?

  17.2.2007 14:58 #6

• SCAMPER

  Probably just quick typing.

  17.2.2007 19:16 #7

• borhan9

  Quote:The two brothers can now expect a maximum suspended prison sentence of 18 to 24 months.Only that long. And other countries give out a few years or maybe even more than 5years. Maybe the key is to admit guilt and get a short sentence.

  17.2.2007 23:58 #8

• ChappyTTV

  Uhhmmm...in case you don't know this..."suspended sentence" means no jail time...the sentence was SUSPENDED!
  So there's no "Butt Buddying" required here, (unless you're REALLY into that kinda thing..) they're basically getting away scott free, and 1 million Euro's richer.
  
  Unless they're sued civilly that is, which most likely will happen, and then I'm sure they'll find that 1 mill Euro's will not even cover the legal costs, let alone the actual damages award which is usually around 2 to 8 times the monetary value garnered illegally.
  I don't think this is the end of this by any means. These guy's are going to find that it costs allot of money to get caught making money illegally, with someone else's product.

  24.2.2007 20:17 #9