NinjaVideo Co-Founder Pleads Guilty

[BlackLantern]

http://www.deadline.com/2011/09/ninjavideo-co-founder-pleads-guilty-in-illegal-download-case/

A 23-year-old North Carolina man who co-founded a website offering illegal downloads pleaded guilty to conspiracy and criminal copyright infringement today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Matthew David Howard Smith admitted that he designed many of the features of NinjaVideo that allowed visitors to grab high-quality downloads of content including movies that had not yet been released in theaters, as well as TV shows. The site went online in February 2008 and was shut down by law enforcement in June 2010. An investigation into NinjaVideo is being conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in conjunction with piracy task force IPR Center. Smith said he had agreements with advertisers for NinjaVideo and that he and others involved in the site collected more than $500,000 between 2008 and 2010. NinjaVideo also invited its users to make donations and in return granted its premium members access to private forums that held more copyrighted material, according to court documents. Smith faces a maximum of five years in prison on each count, and four other alleged co-conspirators associated with the site are headed for a jury trial beginning Feb. 6. Smith is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 16.

to all you thieves out there....yes, you are thieves....your salad days are slowly coming to an end

 

[Scourge2099]

I never heard of NinjaVideo before.

 

[Ultra Lantern]

It's just another website for thieves.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

http://www.deadline.com/2011/09/ninjavideo-co-founder-pleads-guilty-in-illegal-download-case/



to all you thieves out there....yes, you are thieves....your salad days are slowly coming to an end

lol... okay, fun police.

I'm happy the Weinsteins can finally feed their starving families now that this dastardly villain has been caught. I was so worried they wouldn't make it through the long winter.

 

[BlackLantern]

I'm not even talking about specific studios.....its the principle of the thing

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

I'm not even talking about specific studios.....its the principle of the thing

What about multi-billion dollar studios suing 12 year olds for illegal downloads? Is that principled?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/09/tech/main572426.shtml

I don't even really download. I just hate the phony victimized persona that the studios adopt in these case, when they have no problem completely destroying people's lives over these downloads.

 

[Scourge2099]

It's just another website for thieves.

So a Napster , Kazaa , Piratebay clone ?

 

[BlackLantern]

What about multi-billion dollar studios suing 12 year olds for illegal downloads? Is that principled?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/09/tech/main572426.shtml

I don't even really download. I just hate the phony victimized persona that the studios adopt in these case, when they have no problem completely destroying people's lives over these downloads.

I don't always agree with the method but copyright law is what it is....and its plastered on every dvd, blu ray, they even include it in video games now

and its a federal law, no less

and that case took place before the big overhaul to copyright law in 2004 or 2005....which took it from making an illegal copy of music/movie "for profit" to any unauthorized copy being a violation of the law

 

[chaseter]

You don't walk into a store and steal $12 worth of candy and then say it's okay because M&M Mars corp is a huge company. Stealing is stealing. You wouldn't like it if you wrote a book or recorded a song or whatever and had people getting it for free on pirate sites.

 

[Teelie]

Copyright law is so ****ed right now, especially regarding digital that it needs a complete overhaul. Also I can steal a physical CD and it is less of a crime than if I were to download a single song off of it through the internet.

Tell me, where is the principal, fairness or sanity in that at?

 

[BlackLantern]

Copyright law is so ****ed right now, especially regarding digital that it needs a complete overhaul. Also I can steal a physical CD and it is less of a crime than if I were to download a single song off of it through the internet.

Tell me, where is the principal, fairness or sanity in that at?

Why? because you don't agree with it?

I, and millions of other American citizens have no problem with it....I want a song or a movie, I go buy it....if I can't afford it, I do without

 

[Darthphere]

BlackLantern has at least 30 torrents open right now.

 

[StrainedEyes]

Netflix, Spotify, and Gamefly. It's all so easy, cheap, and legal.

 

[Teelie]

Why? because you don't agree with it?

I, and millions of other American citizens have no problem with it....I want a song or a movie, I go buy it....if I can't afford it, I do without

Because you entirely missed the point? Where does downloading a single song become an immense theft over someone stealing an entire CD full of songs? One is physical, it has actual material value. The other is digital and only has a virtual value yet the one with no physical value is worth far more?

I never said copyright law was wrong or that it was okay to steal in any regards but that it has become so lopsided and abused by the RIAA, MPAA and a host of other trade groups that it's become a joke on consumers and openly flaunted for it. The law is no longer an equal rights or limitations system like it used to be and it will not be feasible to keep going in this direction.

Overhauling it does not mean getting rid of it and implying anything else is ignorance. There is no defense of copyright law as it exists today.

 

[Darthphere]

True. I mean if you get caught stealing a CD at most you'll just be banned from the store. Download 12 songs, you get sued for millions. Really doesn't make sense.

 

[Teelie]

No, at most you'll be charged with a misdemeanor crime and pay maybe a $2000 fine and/or spend a year in jail. Typically they do just kick you out of the store and ban you and the cops fine you something like $100 or maybe $250 if they're feeling especially harsh that day.

Get a digital file of just one song on that CD however and pay as much as $32,000 and spend several years in jail. They take a minor crime that most states won't even bother charging you with and trump it up to a felony with the equivalent of grand theft or even manslaughter.

 

[terry78]

They do it to scare people into not doing it anymore. That's the sole reason. They don't really lose revenue if someone downloads a song or two, but if hundreds of millions start doing it, hey.

 

[SuperFerret]

I don't steal music. I and my friends share our music collection with each other.








All 300,000,000,000 of us.

 

[POWdER-man]

I don't steal music. I and my friends share our music collection with each other.


All 300,000,000,000 of us.

Too bad your collection is made up of Hannah Montana and Justin Bieber.

 

[Teelie]

They do it to scare people into not doing it anymore. That's the sole reason. They don't really lose revenue if someone downloads a song or two, but if hundreds of millions start doing it, hey.

Given the evidence I'd say this has a 100% failure rate. It's also because these businesses refuse(d) to modernize and got hit hard when the digital market first emerged. Now they're paying for it after having tried to scare people from it only to spectacularly mess it up. It's caused even more alienation and pirating in response to their slow and overbearing policies. The RIAA has given up suing its customers for now and instead is trying to play catch up.

Still, none of this changes that it's illegal but it makes it "feel" okay to those who do because look at how they treat us and how they criminalize what used to be semi-legal under fair use? Now any form of sharing is a federal crime no matter the intent or purpose.

 

[Mike_D202]

BlackLantern has at least 30 torrents open right now.

 

[BlackLantern]

Netflix, Spotify, and Gamefly. It's all so easy, cheap, and legal.

but oh no those are big companies and we can't give our money to "the man"

 

[The Question]

You don't walk into a store and steal $12 worth of candy and then say it's okay because M&M Mars corp is a huge company. Stealing is stealing. You wouldn't like it if you wrote a book or recorded a song or whatever and had people getting it for free on pirate sites.

Actually I wouldn't mind that at all. And most musicians and authors find that that sort of thing doesn't really cut into their profits very much and serves as more or less free advertising.

And the moral problem I have with stealing candy from a store is that it takes money away from the store. If you stole 12 dollars worth of candy from an M&Ms factory I wouldn't care, they probably wouldn't notice.

I find this kind of moral absolutism to be very diturbing, as A) It leaves no room for extenuating circumstances and B) justifies powerful corporations bullying people senselessly.

but oh no those are big companies and we can't give our money to "the man"

That's a pretty blatant strawman argument. No one's saying that it's wrong to buy things normally or torrenting is justified because corporations are evil. What they are saying is that because corporations are so huge that it's more or less a victimless crime and even if it isn't the punishment once recieves for illegal downloads is over the top and completely unjustified.

 

[BlackLantern]

and if this is such an injustice...why is Mr. Smith pleading guilty? why isn't he getting up in court and proclaiming about the evils of this law and standing up for his rights to pirate?

I'll tell you why....self perservation....that and thieves are usually cowards as well, he doesn't want to go to Federal Poundtown and I'm fairly sure his guilty plea involves testimony against other people who worked on this site

 

[The Question]

and if this is such an injustice...why is Mr. Smith pleading guilty? why isn't he getting up in court and proclaiming about the evils of this law and standing up for his rights to pirate?

I'll tell you why....self perservation....that and thieves are usually cowards as well, he doesn't want to go to Federal Poundtown and I'm fairly sure his guilty plea involves testimony against other people who worked on this site

Admition of guilt does not mean admition or regret or acceptance of the punishment you're given. That is insane. Under the law, he is guilty, and it is probably easier on him in the long run to plead guilty than to fight in a case he knows he can't win. That doesn't mean the punishment he will recieve is in any way justified.

And really, how would it? How does someone pleading guilty prove that they deserve the severity of the punishment they will get?

That applies to your second statement. How does the fact that he's pleading strategically to make things easier on himself have anything to do with wether or not the law's approach to dealing with people who torrent is justified?

And you're "fairly sure his guilty plea involves testimony against other people who worked on this site" based on what, exactly? What do you know about the case that we don't? What factual evidence to you have to suggest that the case was handled in any particular way?

Please, back up your statements with evidence and logic.