torrentfreak.com — Releasers and torrent racers are the select few counted on by millions to bring the latest movies, music and video games to the wider Internet in record time. One such person, a 15-year-old school kid, eventually gained access to elite piracy sites and went on to become the top uploader on one of the world's most famous BitTorrent trackers. But how did the buzz of the elite compare to being hunted down by a Patriot Act-empowered FBI?
Feb 4, 2012 View in Crawl 4
justa__free__thinkerFeb 5, 2012
Wow, how do I express my vast relief and great pride in the FBI. You just don't know how many nights I hide under my covers worrying that "somebody" might have an unauthorised copy of "Mars needs Moms". Funny how when the Patriot Act was being rushed through Congress we were all told that it would never effect anybody rights but the "Bad guys".
But we keep hearing these stories on how it's used more to help big biz (RIAA) then to stop anybody "real" from hurting us.
gimiesomeFeb 5, 2012
The laws are made to make us all bad guys, Much easier for them to get more arrests.
mogulmikeFeb 5, 2012
Most people think this will never happen to them.
swipecatFeb 5, 2012
They might think that but we know better. It could happen to anybody. There you are, ironing your shirts in the morning, then whooops - you accidentally configure 50 100Mb servers to stream pirate movies, then you iron another shirt, then whooops - another 50 100Mb servers!
mogulmikeFeb 5, 2012
That's how it almost happened to me exactly. LOL. But seriously, a domestic terrorist? Who is he terrorizing and who's life is being endangered here? Oh, I get it, its because he endangered the LIFEstyle of the rich by eating into their profits. Big Brother won't have you messing with Big Business like that, no no no.
slindenFeb 5, 2012
“My story isn’t one of inspiration but one of caution. It could happen to anyone out there. I know people are thinking ‘nah, not me’, but that’s what I thought too and now here we are.”
The only difference is that we aren't major torrent uploaders with dozens of servers dedicated solely for pirating.
sabz5150Feb 5, 2012
Oh s**t guys, feds at the door, DUMP YOUR ZIP DRIVES!!!
meribianFeb 5, 2012
FBI = f**king Bunch of Idiots
PanjeeFeb 5, 2012
If the uploaders are not profiting from their actions... where is the controversy?
class144Feb 5, 2012
That is just some Bull**** Let us share, or we will do it without your permission. Politics and Government - they are all the same in every country. They just can't accept that there can be something that is not under their control.
eninen525Feb 5, 2012
his escape plan didn't work
nunfuFeb 5, 2012
sharing isn't terrorism
ristoranti_castelli_romaniFeb 5, 2012
piracy is like stealing! steal to somebody else is like agree somebody will steal us!
tomgfromcanadaFeb 5, 2012
f**kin f**k heads
cacile09Feb 5, 2012
they can keep busted but they can't stop it....
berobreoFeb 5, 2012
It's not about the internet, it's about technology,.. People have been copying music, etc since the double deck tape recorders, ..
If torrent, direct download sites, etc wouldn't be available we will be sharing with friends and coworkers. The technology have changed -> the market have changed, ..
breadfredFeb 5, 2012
The invention of photography was silenced for years by portrait studio's as it would jeopardize their business. That was in the 1820's. This kind of shenanigans stopping new technologies has been going on much longer than people think.
Also do not forget that in days long before even the 1820's, reading was solely taught to the upper classes - you would not want just ANYONE to read as it would put strange thoughts into people's minds.
johnnysoftwareFeb 5, 2012
Terrible analogy.
You compare families snapping a photo of themselves to people stealing a commercial production created by professionals as a money-making venture so they can make a living to feed their families.
It is not the same thing.
Go make your own movie.
Then, you can make an analogy about DV cams.
Torrenting stolen commercial works is a completely different story from creating something.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
berobreoFeb 5, 2012
In fact I think it is really good. It's a change of technology, it's people resistance to change, ..
There are parts on the process that are quite unfair right now, .. but this will happen until the parts adapt to the new situation.
umdweiFeb 5, 2012
Didn't they find out that most pirated movies were released by someone within the studios? Maybe not top level, but someone...
blankmikeFeb 5, 2012
Yes. It turns out they put some tracing marks in the various copies. It turns out people selecting movies for the academy awards were the ones responsible.
blankmikeFeb 5, 2012
The example about reading is bang on. Look at the book burnings they had in Europe. Where did the books come from? Not the elite.
Gutenberg really created one massive political problem when he invented the European version of the printing press. Most of the controversy centres around the church, but once people learned to read and write for themselves they started paying attention to what was happening around them (politically). The English, American, and French revolutions followed within the space of a couple centuries. All because of the mass printing and duplication of books.
I don't think we can expect a second American revolution any time soon. The first time around they had something more definite in mind than people do now.
blankmikeFeb 5, 2012
I was going to disagree about the issue in general being tech. However the article actually talks about how and what he did. So I have to agree with this assessment (for a change).
Again, you are correct it isn't about the internet. The specific example is but the big picture isn't. When cassette recorders came out the recording industry was up in arms about people recording radio broadcasts through microphones. The only difference between that and the internet example, is now the recording industry has the ability to call in the police and have them mess up anyone they *suspect* of copyright infringement. They can now over-react more thoroughly and at the speed of a phone call.
Any time there is the capability of duplication, someone will complain.
pembesehpaFeb 5, 2012
hii
withearsFeb 5, 2012
So "elite teen bittorrent uploader" is what we call someone who steals games/music/movies/software these days?
How about "thief"?
asrrin29Feb 5, 2012
It's not theft, it's copyright infringement. One is a criminal act and the other is a civil matter. Get it right dumb ass.
johnnysoftwareFeb 5, 2012
Copyright infringement is violation of civil and criminal law. It is two treats in one. You can get hit with both when you do it.
Someone lied to you about this, or you just guessed wrong?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_United_States#Criminal_penalties
withearsFeb 5, 2012
It's theft and it's copyright infringement.
And they're BOTH wrong.
Dumbass indeed.
letherialFeb 5, 2012
Right and wrong are all matter of perspective.
For instance, i think that everything the recording industry does is wrong; Its core value, greed, is a horrible force in this world.
withearsFeb 5, 2012
The answer to greed is not theft.
letherialFeb 5, 2012
your right!
its copying :)
withearsFeb 5, 2012
copying = theft.
Pay for your s**t.
blankmikeFeb 5, 2012
Not theft since the owner still has the original.
withearsFeb 5, 2012
Theft because the person acquiring didn't pay for it.
letherialFeb 5, 2012
Theft is the taking of one item and denying the control to the owner, piracy only fulfills one of those roles. The owner still has full control of the original item.
Some argue that it is stealing inadvertently, as in the theft of the value. Except, in alot of cases it turns a non sale to a sale. For example, i would of never bought batman, except i pirated it and found it to be a really good game...The jokes on me though, with 4 max pc activations, 4 times of reformatting windows and i got to pirate the game again..haha; should of never bought it.
Point is, human nature is human nature; you can argue the ethics all you want and you can also say its stealing all you want; it changes nothing, the government cannot control it, the industry cannot control it and we are in a stand-still because the industry does not want to adapt...instead they want to punish legitimate users for the action of the pirates...ironically, leading to more piracy.
This circle will end only after the industry changes its way, its just going to be that way. None of these laws will stop it in the same way that the drug war never won. Its just another money sink hole for the government to get involved.
withearsFeb 6, 2012
I'm not going to argue ethics, I'm going to argue crime - stealing is a crime.
This is really simple.
JLF2035Feb 5, 2012
No. What is wrong is charging 60 bucks for a game, and in many cases not even releasing a demo, then not being able to return it if it's crap. With policies like that; it's no wonder people pirate.
withearsFeb 5, 2012
With policies like that; it's no wonder people steal.
There. I fixed it for you.
JLF2035Feb 5, 2012
Call it what you want. It doesn't change the fact that crappy policies like that contribute to it. Maybe if they would allow games to be returned within a certain amount if time, they could cut down on it.
withearsFeb 6, 2012
Well, I'll call it what it IS - stealing.
Complain all you want about "policies" but that doesn't change the fact that you are stealing that product.
johnnysoftwareFeb 6, 2012
@JLF2035 They don't because of people like you.
/ty
/s
sabz5150Feb 5, 2012
Charging $60 for a game is not wrong... IF IT IS A GOOD GAME.
What is horribly wrong is charging $60 for a half-assed, barely playable, beta-test-in-progress, cobbled together piece of s**t. Unfortunately that covers about sixty to seventy percent of most games.
And it stems from one thing: Greed. Get that motherf**ker out the door and on the shelves so we can make boatloads off the masses and then *MAYBE* we will dedicate some time to fix the issues we've known about since halfway through development.
johnnysoftwareFeb 6, 2012
Ironic to see greed brought up given such a one-sided PoV context.
withearsFeb 5, 2012
It's hard to believe how many of you think this is ok.
letherialFeb 5, 2012
its hard to believe how many people defend this very corrupt organization.