AfterDawn: News

First sentencing for illegal file sharing in Czech Republic

For the first time in the Czech Republic, a man has been sentenced to prison time for illegal music file sharing.

According to officials, the man caused damage of about one million crowns ($50,000 USD) and for his crimes he received a 7 month sentence.



"We have uprooted the myth that the Internet is an anonymous environment. This simply is not true. Everybody who gets on the Internet actually becomes...a specific, non-anonymous participant," Jaromir Soukup from the Czech branch of the IFPI said.

Petra Zikovska, the head of the Czech branch of the IFPI stated that the group has been fighting against unauthorized music file sharing for over a year.

Zikovska also stated that on April 11th, the police, in cooperation with the IFPI, raided the homes of 13 suspected file-sharers and seized 20 PCs and hundreds of CDs so it seems more sentencing may be coming in the near future.

Soukup said that those who "violate copyright face up to two years in prison and a fine twice as high as the damage caused."

He also mentioned that the sentencing should help the public learn that unauthorized P2P file sharing is illegal as he understands that many do not know that it is.

Source:
Ceskenoviny

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 19 Apr 2007 17:00

• Previous article

• Panasonic BD player firmware update

• Next article

• Jack Thompson settles with Take Two

• 19 comments

• PeaInAPod

  Nothing to do with the subject really, but I must say for an article on Piracy there is no better image to use than that of everybodys favorite pirate. Captain Jack Sparrow

  19.4.2007 17:27 #1

• Chaos343

  that acually kinda scarred me alittle. What if they start doing that in the US? *sigh* I guess its time for a format.

  19.4.2007 18:57 #2

• ZippyG

  P2P file sharing is not illegal.

  19.4.2007 20:54 #3

• dragondog

  p2p not illegal? i thought it was i herd a guy in the us was sentenced for that....but dont quote me......correct me if im wrong.

  19.4.2007 21:06 #4

• PeaInAPod

  Filesharing (P2P, and its clients/protocols) are not illegal. The files that one may download over P2P are.

  19.4.2007 21:16 #5

• windsong

  Drivecrypt is your friend!

  19.4.2007 22:26 #6

• borhan9

  I gotta say i like the pic. But he is a good pirate ;) in regards to the article well another one joins the long list of others.

  19.4.2007 23:42 #7

• georgeluv

  The title is wrong; he was busted for massive uploading. I doubt you could download 50,000 dollars worth of material. I doubt they could have even tracked him downloading 50,000 dollars worth of material.
  
  Downloading is not illegal (at least my educated interpretation of the action of downloading is not illegal under US law); only uploading is, for fucks sake everyone needs to make this clear in their articles.
  
  Let’s dispel some common p2p security myths that i keep seeing people bring up on these forums:
  
  Encryption is not safety, it basically does nothing. If you can go online and get the encrypter, what makes you think that they can’t get it and decrypt it? Unless your encryption is home made and your a super genius or something your encryption does nothing. It will make it so your ISP can’t see what’s going in or out that’s all, it will help with ISP throttling not security.
  
  IP changers; also useless. Your IP changes often enough, even on a cable modem. they don’t have your addy anyway, no matter what IP they record they still have to correlate it with a real addy via harassing your ISP into giving it over, some ISPs fold in a second, some fight it tooth and nail.
  
  ip block lists; this idea is so dumb it makes me laugh because so many people think they work. You actually think they don’t have their own IP changers?
  
  Private trackers; unfortunately 99% of people mistake a private torrent link post with private trackers. Most are private link posts that just link to public trackers. a true private tracker means that you are a member of the site that’s actually hosting the trackers, very rare. that’s means nothing gets seeded without first being downloaded from another non-private tracker then a new tracker is made for the private site then its posted, and private trackers are no safer than public ones because all they ask when you sign up is "what’s your email" and "what do you want your password to be?".
  
  spoofing and server hopping works, just got to rout the traffic through countries that are p2p friendly like France or Germany.
  
  Personal firewalls, they don’t need access to your computer they just need to see where it is.
  
  This is how p2p security works; you are sending out requests and receiving info. It doesn’t matter how much encryption you have or what your IP is. You need to send out a return addy to get the file, no way around it. Only way to shake them from backtracking the trail is to lead the trail through an area where they can’t go but you can, like foreign servers. The other way is wifi surfing, but that’s stealing.
  
  Of course all this is pointless if you’re just leaching. If your just leaching just use encrypted clients so your ISP doesn’t throttle you that’s it. Nothing else to worry about.

  20.4.2007 05:31 #8

• DVDBack23

  You guys are right the title was meant to say *sharing* and ive since updated. thanks

  20.4.2007 06:26 #9

• windsong

  Originally posted by georgeluv:Encryption is not safety, it basically does nothing.Ho boy...
  
  So if I may ask..if encryption does "nothing", then why do they take your computer? They take it to be used as evidence. If you encrypt your whole hard drive using Drivecrypt, there is NO way they can access the "evidence" without the passphrase. And the only way they'd get the phrase is by torture/intimidation tactics. There are still laws against self-incrimination.
  
  Drivecrypt and PGP have not, and will never be broken. If you encrypt..they must acquit.
  
  Much better to be encrypted than to NOT be encrypted!!!!

  20.4.2007 10:23 #10

• skeil909

  Originally posted by Chaos343:that acually kinda scarred me alittle. What if they start doing that in the US? *sigh* I guess its time for a format.They would have to build about 2 extra prisons per U.S. city to even begin to think about such an act. In California they are releasing people with bail set up to $500,000 do to overcrowding. It's crazy.

  20.4.2007 12:28 #11

• PeaInAPod

  The program TrueCrypt even has a feature that will allow you to essentially encrypt your harddrive within a encrypted drive. So basically if this is setup and you tortured for your password you give it to them and all they get is a hard-drive of nothing(or whatever you so choose to put on their). When in reality all your files are safely stored away in another encrypted partition :)

  20.4.2007 19:23 #12

• georgeluv

  windsong,
  
  you really think a forensic computer investigator wont be able to decrypt your drive thats was encrypted with a prog that’s that common on the net?
  
  better option is just to never let them get to your comp in the first place, and i was talking about lawsuits, civil not criminal. they cant take your comp in a lawsuit. all they can do is log your ip.
  
  everyone trust me, i know someone that worked for the computer crimes division of the new jersey state police, they can decrypt your drive. its too easy, all the info is right there on the disk! about a trillion bits more than what they would have to collect to decrypt even the longest of encryption keys. like i said unless you are some sort of super genious and make your own encryption they will decrypt your drive faster than you can say "fuck i should have just dropped my hard drive in acid".

  21.4.2007 14:49 #13

• XdjxedxdX

  "We have uprooted the myth that the Internet is an anonymous environment. This simply is not true. Everybody who gets on the Internet actually becomes...a specific, non-anonymous participant," Jaromir Soukup from the Czech branch of the IFPI said.
  
  Ya i dont even remember what my real IP is anymore.lmao
  and for decrypting your harddrive, How do you think these guys break the encryption on dvd's .Pretty much the same way they would the harddrive.
  It's been prooven time and time again ....If you build a better mouse trap someone will just build a smarter mouse... so to speak. Nothing is uncrackable as long as someones got the time.

  23.4.2007 20:25 #14

• XdjxedxdX

  And theres plenty of guys/girls out there with nothin better to do.want an example.... How many of you will have a date or go out with your girlfriends or wives this weekend...umm show of hands .....ah anyone ......hmmmmmmmmm .Yup lota potetial crackers out there. :)

  23.4.2007 20:31 #15

• dragondog

  ok read this
  http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/481552
  so can someone explain why my page was shut down for piricy if p2p is not illegal..... and if p2p is not illegal but downloading files are...or filesharing may you call it is then why not just make p2p illegal thats all its there for anyways filesharing...
  
  
  
  in my opinion if someone else is making money off somebodys original work thats piricy
  
  
  
  but if its just being shared then F**k whats the deal
  

  
  

  24.4.2007 17:49 #16

• DVDBack23

  Originally posted by dragondog:ok read this
  http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/481552
  so can someone explain why my page was shut down for piricy if p2p is not illegal..... and if p2p is not illegal but downloading files are...or filesharing may you call it is then why not just make p2p illegal thats all its there for anyways filesharing...
  
  
  
  in my opinion if someone else is making money off somebodys original work thats piricy
  
  
  
  but if its just being shared then F**k whats the dealu were asking to break DRM, which is clearly illegal.
  

  MAX OUT DOWNLOAD SPEEDS USING UTORRENT http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/utorrent_guide.cfm
  RAR playback and extraction guide http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/winrar_guide.cfm
  How to convert .avi to DVD with Menus http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/1/272946
  
  
  

  24.4.2007 20:44 #17

• dragondog

  oh
  

  
  

  25.4.2007 14:29 #18

• ddp

  dragondog, don't post something that is completely off topic from the ongoing thread as that is a forum rule no no. post deleted

  4.5.2007 07:49 #19