Web pirate who stole up to £240m of music is jailed

[Jazzy]

[font=ScoutBold, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Web pirate who stole up to £240m of music is jailed[/font]

[font=ScoutBold, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]An internet pirate, who could have cost the music industry up to £240 million after sharing thousands of songs before they were released, has been jailed.
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[font=ScoutLight, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Kane Robinson was tracked down in the UK with the help of U.S. Homeland Security after tracks by stars including Adele, Jay Z and Kanye West were uploaded to the site he started from his bedroom as a teenager in 2006.
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[font=ScoutLight, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The forum made available £240m worth of music for free to users. The Brit wasn’t in it for the profit though as he barely made any money from DancingJesus.com.

He admitted he was more motivated by the acclaim he received by uploading new tunes first.

But after 70 million visitors helped themselves to free downloads, his operation came to be viewed as a serious threat.

Robinson, of North Shields, North Tyneside, was helped by contributors to build up a catalogue of 250,000 songs.

[/font][font=ScoutLight, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]One prolific poster, Richard Graham from Leicester, was also jailed yesterday for uploading 8,000 tracks, two thirds of which were unreleased.
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[font=ScoutLight, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][font=ScoutLight, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Robinson, now 26, was jailed for 32 months and Graham, 22, for 21 months after both admitted distributing infringing articles.[/font][/font]

[font=ScoutBold, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Should the laws be tougher on music piracy?[/font]

 

[zeekthewizard]

Nope not even!
I download a boot-leg DVDrip movie almost every month. I'd give that hacker a high-five and, a first class dinner!

 

[Sinon]

I'm torn. Of course, it feels awful to see something you've worked hard on taken and shared by other people without your consent. But on the other hand, especially with music tracks and such, it's such a massive industry already, and most of the artists that 'suffer' are still making millions upon millions anyway.

I forget exactly who said it, but I read a quote some time back by a game developer who actively supported people pirating his work. It was something along the lines of "If they pirated it, they weren't going to buy it in the first place. I haven't lost anything right now, but I've gained potential customers down the line"