23 year old behind bars under p2p case

23 year old behind bars under p2p case


23 year old Grant T. Stanley, a network administrator for a peer-to-peer Internet file-sharing system has been sentenced on October 17th to five months in prison along with five months of home detention, three years of supervised probation and a $3,000 fine for copyright infringement. The Elite Torrents network, for which the youth worked as a network administrator, had more than 133,000 members and allegedly facilitated the illegal distribution of more than 2 million copies of movies, software, music and games using the BitTorrent sharing technology.

Stanley is one of three people convicted through Operation D-Elite, a federal crackdown on suppliers of pirated works to Elite Torrents, which agents shut down in May 2005. Federal officials said that Elite Torrents network offered 'Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sixth', six hours before it even debuted in theaters. U.S. Attorney John Brownlee said that he hoped this case sends the message that cyberspace will not provide a shield of anonymity for those who break copyright laws.

Peer-to-peer file sharing sites and networks have been under the scanner, particularly in the US, by authorities and have been constantly targeted for closing down due to pressure from the copyright owners.