Tuesday, April 11, 2006
so i know this kid, he posts on the same forum as i do. the kid was given some tracks by someone. fbi comes to his house in late augusts, seizes his harddrive asks him questions and tells him hell be okay. fast forward to march 2006 and this is what happens. he is facing up to 11 YEARS in FEDERAL PRISON plus fines up to $750,000 and all because he leaked - to die hard fans and not some i33t hax0r group - four tracks to DIEHARD-we're-going-to-buy-the-album-anyhow fans. most people said the leak actually HELPED the sales of jacksonville city nights, since fucking lost highway couldnt be bothered to do much promotion for it. gah. gah. gah. fuck the riaa.
Feds Bust Fans For Pirated Ryan Adams Tunes
March 10, 2006, 10:30 AM ET
Brooks Boliek, The Hollywood Reporter
A pair of apparent Ryan Adams fans ran afoul of a new law making it a crime to publish songs before their release to the general public when they made portions of the singer's latest album available on a Web site frequented by his fans.
Robert Thomas of Milwaukee and Jared Bowser of Jacksonville, Fla., were indicted under a provision of the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act (FECA) law that makes it a separate federal crime to pirate music and movies before they are released to the public, Memphis-based U.S. attorney Jim Vines and FBI special agent My Harrison said.
The indictments are believed to be the first under the prerelease provision of the 2005 FECA law. The men are alleged to have posted portions of Adams' 'Jacksonville City Nights' on a fan Web site about a month before its official release last September. Adams records for Lost Highway Records, whose Universal Music Group parent did not grant authority for the Internet distribution.
'Any perception that copyright violations are victimless crimes is just plain wrong,' Vines said. 'Whether stolen intellectual property is given away or sold by thieves for a profit, the rightful owners of such property are still hurt. Many individual and corporate victims of copyright crimes live, work and create here in the middle district of Tennessee, and persons who knowingly violate federal copyright law face serious consequences whether or not they intend to harm anyone. Federal copyright violations are both a national and local priority and will be aggressively prosecuted in this district.'
If convicted on all counts, the defendants each face a potential of 11 years in prison. The case was investigated by FBI agents and is being prosecuted by the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Section of the United States "
posted by: Kerri at 10:23 pm
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