Shut down those terrorists... er fans...
July 26, 2004 9:20 AM   Subscribe

A threat to national security! Adam McGaughey, the owner of a Stargate fansite has been slapped with criminal charges (Criminal Copyright Infringement and Trafficking in Counterfeit Services) after being reported to the FBI by the MPAA for including Amazon links to encourage fans to purchase DVDs of the show. To build its case, the FBI invoked a provision of the USA Patriot Act to obtain financial records from his ISP. And, since he "conspired" with thousands of fans worldwide by providing these Amazon Market links, he could be facing up to 20 years in jail if the government invokes RICO.
posted by headspace (63 comments total)
 
The main link is just loading a blank page for me. Could be just me, but if you've got an alternate link it might be useful.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:28 AM on July 26, 2004


I don't get it. He linked to Amazon and broke some obscure law? Am I being dim, or is the explanation of events lacking?
posted by Mayor Curley at 9:28 AM on July 26, 2004


There must be something more going on here besides links to Amazon. What am I missing?

Was he hosting copies of the show?
posted by Argyle at 9:31 AM on July 26, 2004


jacquilynne, here is the full text if you still can't see it:
ederal charges were filed against Adam McGaughey, creator of the popular SG1Archive.com website - a fan website devoted to the MGM-owned television show Stargate SG-1. The charges allege that the website engaged in Criminal Copyright Infringement and Trafficking in Counterfeit Services. The charges were the culmination of a three-year FBI investigation, set in motion by a complaint from the Motion Picture Association (MPAA) regarding the content of the SG1Archive.com website.

SG1Archive.com is one of the most popular fan-run websites among the Stargate community. In addition to providing very active fan discussion forums, broadcast schedules, production news, and episode guides, the site heavily promotes the sale of the show on DVD. As of this writing, direct links from SG1Archive.com to Amazon.com have resulted in the sale of over $100,000 worth of DVDs. Many more DVDs have been sold to international fans of the show through sites like Blackstar.co.uk. Upon hearing this news, Stargate executive producer Brad Wright called the site "cool" - which Adam took as an endorsement of his work.

However, instead of thanking Adam for his promotion of their product, officials at MGM and the MPAA have chosen to pressure the FBI into pursuing criminal charges. Adam was first tipped off about the investigation when the FBI raided his and his fiancee's apartment in May of 2002 and seized thousands of dollars worth of computer equipment. Adam later received a copy of the affidavit filed in support of the search warrant, and was shocked to discover that this document, prepared by the FBI, contained significant amounts of erroneous and misleading information. For example, two social security numbers were listed for Adam, one of which is not his. References were made to a cease and desist letter sent by the MPAA to an email address that did not exist. His online friendship with other Stargate fans across the globe was portrayed as an international conspiracy against the MPAA. And perhaps most disturbing of all, it was later revealed that the FBI invoked a provision of the USA Patriot Act to obtain financial records from his ISP. The FBI's abuse of its powers did not stop there. When they seized Adam's computer equipment, he was given written documentation stating that it would be returned within 60 days. The equipment that they did return did not arrive until more than 8 months later, and only then after much prodding from his lawyer. Much of it was damaged beyond repair - one laptop had a shattered LCD screen, an empty tape backup drive was ripped apart for no apparent reason, his fiancee's iBook was badly damaged when it was pried apart with a screwdriver. The FBI's computer crimes staff is either incompetent (at least when it comes to Macintosh computer equipment) or else they just don't give a damn.

Adam has has received positive feedback about his site from multiple members of the Stargate cast and crew at fan conventions. In addition, a representative of MGM's fan publication interviewed Adam about his website several months prior to the FBI raid. As a result, Adam sincerely believed that the show's creators did not have a problem with the content of his website. Many other sites are currently serving content of questionable legality, without promoting the sale of DVDs or offering a community for fans to discuss the show. Why the MPAA and FBI have chosen to ignore these sites and target SG1Archive.com is unclear.

Up until this point, Adam has been fortunate enough to receive pro bono legal counsel in his current hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio. However, the charges were filed in Los Angeles county. The cost of travel, trial, bond, etc. is likely to be quite high. Unfortnunately, Adam and his fiancee do not have the resources to pay for it all - he is a Macintosh repair technician at a chain computer store and she is a medical student. If you would like to contribute to the SG1Archive.com Legal Defense Fund, please make a paypal donation by clicking the button below. Or buy a T-shirt from the SG1archive store at cafepress.com. Thank you for your support!
There must be some part of this story missing, because it sounds ridiculous.
posted by mathowie at 9:32 AM on July 26, 2004


He's not listing the exact charges*, but that's not relevant to the FBI needlessly destroying private property at the behest of a powerful organization.

With any luck the MPAA and RIAA will adopt draconian enough practices to drive even the most honest of consumers to piracy, driving them out of business. Fucking terrible.

*a poster in the comments thread mentioned that they had episodes available for download.
posted by kavasa at 9:33 AM on July 26, 2004


Where are you getting the "threat to national security" claim? It's certainly not mentioned in the article. In fact, not much at all is mentioned in the article. Some more facts would be nice.

FWIW, it's never a good idea to assume permission to use content when your "consent" is from someone merely associated with a work.
posted by anathema at 9:37 AM on July 26, 2004


Google says there may have been some fraud issues in the past.
posted by Galvatron at 9:38 AM on July 26, 2004


Amazon Marketplace sellers often have bootleg DVDs for sale, but his Amazon links don't seem to be related to the charge. The only mention of them I see is "As of this writing, direct links from SG1Archive.com to Amazon.com have resulted in the sale of over $100,000 worth of DVDs". He is selling homemade (well, Cafeshop) SG-1 branded merchandise through his store link, though. That might have something to do with it.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 9:39 AM on July 26, 2004


Then they came for the Stargate fans... WTF?
posted by homunculus at 9:39 AM on July 26, 2004


Anathema: The "Threat to national security" reference was to the fact that they used the Patriot Act to get access to the relevant financial records.
posted by lodurr at 9:40 AM on July 26, 2004


While the release states many things the site does, it doesn't seem to claim he's being charged for providing Amazon links - that's more the defense (i.e. whatever else I've done, I've also made you money). I assume he was charged with providing copyrighted material on the site?
posted by jacquilynne at 9:44 AM on July 26, 2004


In addition, a representative of MGM's fan publication interviewed Adam about his website several months prior to the FBI raid.

When TPTB and the company that owns the show is actually talking to you, in the past, that's been a pretty good indication that you're not in trouble for having a fansite. Warner Brother's Online Marketing department contacted me with a press kit announcing the Soundtrack and DVD sets for "Smallville," and asked that I put them on my fan website. I don't have sound or media clips, but I do have publicity photos and digitally manipulated art on the site, as well as fan fiction ranging from G to NC-17. Since my contact with WB acknowledged they *knew* what I had on my site, I assumed it was kosher, probably much the same way Adam did.

Nevertheless, I took down all of my WB-provided pimping materials this morning, since it appears that the MPAA can go over Warner Brother's head anytime it wants to.
posted by headspace at 9:49 AM on July 26, 2004


In the forums, somebody alleges that from 98-02 there were links on the site to bootleg copies of all the Stargate episodes. My impression is that this is what the whole thing is about - the wheels of justice grind slowly.
posted by Irontom at 9:51 AM on July 26, 2004


Yeah, he was busted because "from about 1998 to around 2002, every single Star Gate episode was linked on this site." (found here, superfluous caps removed). I don't know if the poster simply means linked to, as he states, or if the video files were actually hosted by the site in question.

So yeah, that kind of copyright infringement would warrant an investigation, although I've never really agreed with the FBI needlessly destroying people's equipment.

Or, on preview, what Irontom said. Stupid compulsive spell-checking always slows me down.
posted by mmcg at 9:54 AM on July 26, 2004


The Patriot Act amended many laws that were already on the books that were not directly related to "national security." (Amendements to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act are just one example.) Waving that flag around is just a misunderstanding of the Act.
posted by anathema at 9:59 AM on July 26, 2004


I don't know if the poster simply means linked to, as he states, or if the video files were actually hosted by the site in question.

Depending on the facts and the jurisdiction, linking could be enough to impose liability.
posted by anathema at 10:01 AM on July 26, 2004


From the article: Many other sites are currently serving content of questionable legality, without promoting the sale of DVDs or offering a community for fans to discuss the show. Why the MPAA and FBI have chosen to ignore these sites and target SG1Archive.com is unclear.

He did have bootlegs of the epidsodes, quite publicly and for a long, long time (in Internet time). The "linking to Amazon" is a red herring - he was targeted because in addition to linking to Amazon - which he did as a visible but meaningless gesture of his "good faith" - he had DiVX (if I remember correctly) formatted episodes available for downloading directly from his site. I don't quite see how the Patriot Act is involved, except it was a convenient way for the FBI to get at the ISP's records (sort of a "We think he's a terrorists, give us your records... Oops, guess he's not a terrorist, oh well, we'll just keep these photocopies we made" kind of thing?)
posted by JollyWanker at 10:04 AM on July 26, 2004


17 USC 506 and 18 USC 2319 deal with criminal penalties for copyright violators. Assuming that he is being charged with wilfully infringing a copyright involving a value of more than $1,000, he faces a maximum of 3 years in prison.

The fact that the criminal justice system is authorized to deal with copyright violators is abominable. When you misappropriate copyrighted material, you injure the copyright owner. You don't, however, offend the sensibilities of the public at large.
posted by PrinceValium at 10:10 AM on July 26, 2004


My Stargate aficionado connection asks me to add:
"the episode downloads they had available were 30MB each, so the quality was absolute crap. The idea being you could use them to catch up on an ep you missed, fill in plot and what not, but have something that looked so bad you'd not want to keep it."
posted by whatzit at 10:15 AM on July 26, 2004



sounds like what he was doing was illegal, but the FBI had no business invoking the patriot act or destroying his equipment.

civil suit time. he should at least take them to court over the equipment damage.
posted by muppetboy at 10:17 AM on July 26, 2004


This story would have more credibility if the link were to a source with some bit of objecivity rather than Stargate Archive. As is, I am not going to get to concerned from hearing one side of the story.

Plus, the whole terrorist/national security slant of the FPP is bullshit even if they did invoke the Patriot Act.
posted by mischief at 10:24 AM on July 26, 2004


in addition to linking to Amazon - which he did as a visible but meaningless gesture of his "good faith" - he had DiVX (if I remember correctly) formatted episodes available for downloading directly from his site.

Which apparently caused the tragic purchase of over $100,000 in Stargate DVDs. This must be stopped.
posted by weston at 10:26 AM on July 26, 2004


Oh boy. From what I hear, nerds don't fare too well in prison :(
posted by dhoyt at 10:43 AM on July 26, 2004


I think they're setting all of this up for a new show on Fox called When Patriot Acts Run Amok.

How dare he make money for Amazon!
posted by fenriq at 10:48 AM on July 26, 2004


Yet another example that the MPAA is completely mystified, bewildered, and terrified by the digital age.

I'm beginning to think the MPAA is not run by evil curmudgeons but by completely inept luddites. They are like the Amish of the entertainment industry.

Or something.
posted by Ynoxas at 10:51 AM on July 26, 2004


Waving that flag around is just a misunderstanding of the Act.

Which just goes to show that the act's promoters were basically lying, since that's the flag under which they sold it.
posted by Mars Saxman at 10:51 AM on July 26, 2004


I'm wondering what the other side of the story is. I don't buy the claim that this is about linking to Amazon.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 10:52 AM on July 26, 2004


PrinceValium - that's not really true. Largescale commercial piracy operations (generally run from Eastern Europe and South America) dwarf the "losses" incurred by casual, individual piracy, and the criminal justice system is the only good way to deal with them (IMO).

For all the people going LOL AMAZON LINKS??? - read the god damn thread. Jesus.
posted by kavasa at 10:55 AM on July 26, 2004


Well, let's see, the PATRIOT in Patriot Act stands for "Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism." And some of its proponents have tried to demonize its opponents as being unconcerned with national security.

You're right, anathema, much of its contents have nothing to do with terrorism.

Which is why headspace was also right to call attention to that fact through this example.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 11:29 AM on July 26, 2004


"Adam was first tipped off about the investigation when the FBI raided his and his fiancee's apartment in May of 2002 and seized thousands of dollars worth of computer equipment."

That's quite a tip off.

"Honey, the FBI is here and they're seizing thousands of dollars worth of computer equipment"
"Oh crap, I think they're on to us."
posted by Outlawyr at 11:51 AM on July 26, 2004


The Patriot Act amended many laws that were already on the books that were not directly related to "national security." (Amendements to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act are just one example.) Waving that flag around is just a misunderstanding of the Act.

Umm, hello? As people have mentioned, that's the problem.
posted by The God Complex at 12:01 PM on July 26, 2004


In addition to linking to Amazon - which he did as a visible but meaningless gesture of his "good faith" - he had DiVX (if I remember correctly) formatted episodes available for downloading directly from his site.

Which apparently caused the tragic purchase of over $100,000 in Stargate DVDs. This must be stopped.


From what do you infer that the availability of bootleg copies of the episodes lead directly to the $100K of purchases? He claims that his site generated $100K of purchases, based on his affiliate payments presumably, but those purchases were almost certainly made by people who would have bought those DVDs regardless of whether he'd provided illegal "previews" or not. He makes no claim that the bootleg videos were in some way "connected" to Amazon, he just says there were "direct links from SG1Archive.com to Amazon.com." The presumption he could "trade" with MGM by providing links to Amazon in exchange for maintaining pirated copies of their material is either disingenous or just plain dumb. In neither case is it any excuse for breaking copyright law, which he clearly knows he was doing, although he equivocates by using the phrase "questionable legality" ("Many other sites are currently serving content of questionable legality, without promoting the sale of DVDs or offering a community for fans to discuss the show.").
posted by JollyWanker at 12:22 PM on July 26, 2004


Can anyone here who understands law explain why he wasn't warned first? What other reason to be so blunt about the situation than to just make an example out of him?
posted by Keyser Soze at 12:34 PM on July 26, 2004


dosent he get some % of the purchase if people follow his links to amazon.com and buy the dvds? I thought they had a program like that.
posted by outsider at 12:36 PM on July 26, 2004


Umm, hello? I got it. It's naive to think that every change that the Act made had to relate to the title of the damn thing. I'm certainly not a proponent of passing laws under dubious pretenses, but I'm also not shocked that it probably happens all the time. I will add that I am not familiar with the legislative history of the Act beyond what I read in the media.
posted by anathema at 12:37 PM on July 26, 2004


More and more it looks like this has nothing to do with the Amazon links.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 12:50 PM on July 26, 2004


Ok I haven't really understood anything because of lack of details or because I'm bewildered ..but anyway

1- If he stored _verbatim_ copies of movies on his server
2- And gave the movies away for free then

He's "guilty" of being generous, a sin that isn't on the 10 commandments only because nobody can copyright them
and alter them.

As for the minor income to the producing studios, they MUST have realized free advertisement is much more worth then a few thousand copies ; goddamn anybody with half a clue understands that, even some lawyer.

3- And SOLD the copies

Then he must pay back for the lost income as he didn't took any part in producing it, afawk.

1- If he stored _links_ to copies
2- And gave away the links for free

He's "guilty" of giving information away for free ; big deal

------

Oh and about the Patriot Act : welcome to reality, in which lawyers exploit laws in intelligent ways while the population still believes the whole reason behind some law is to protect them from evil and that laws cannot be used for other purposes. Mhhhh the refreshing smell of brainwashing.
posted by elpapacito at 1:15 PM on July 26, 2004


"The fact that the criminal justice system is authorized to deal with copyright violators is abominable."

This is the key issue. If you piss off a company and they (or more likely their IP lawyers who are disconnected from the real business) can tell the FBI to start crawling up your ass with a microscope.

Isn't that handy? The DMCA says the FBI can now be used as an IP enforcer by private companies.

So companies have a choice - They can spend thousands of dollars or more litigating things in court, or they can get the FBI to protect their copyright for free.

All they had to do was ask him to take the files down. But no. They chose to ruin his life.
posted by y6y6y6 at 1:18 PM on July 26, 2004


Mega Media Masters say, "$100,000, cool." Laundering bootleg copies of Stargate SG-1 through Amazon Marketplace? Hmmmm.

Sounds like a Grateful Dead shopping scheme. Bootlegs are tolerated to increase (for the Grateful Dead) ticket sales. Then somebody blows the whistle and the Feds make a stink using the Patriot Act.
posted by xtian at 1:24 PM on July 26, 2004


Umm, hello? I got it. It's naive to think that every change that the Act made had to relate to the title of the damn thing. I'm certainly not a proponent of passing laws under dubious pretenses, but I'm also not shocked that it probably happens all the time. I will add that I am not familiar with the legislative history of the Act beyond what I read in the media.

Yes, but it should. The American practice of "tacking on" these clauses and sub-bills to the end of other bills and then passing them (or passing judgement on those who disagree with the additions and vote against the bill) is, in my opinion, counter-intuitive to democracy in that it attempts to hide from the public the truth about what law-makers are doing. The American public rightly gets a lot of flack for being willfully ignorant, but the government sure doesn't try to right the ship in any meaingful way as far as political discourse and knowledge is concerned.

I also find it kind of sad when fairly intelligent people disregard people critical of this practice as "naive" or not with it. I'm quite aware of what it is that American law-makers are in the practice of doing; I just disagree with it very strongly and fail to see how its existence as a practice excuses it when it happens (which seems to be what you were suggesting in the first place).
posted by The God Complex at 1:58 PM on July 26, 2004


If the fans are disgusted by this, there is an easy solution. Stop watching "Stargate," stop buying "Stargate" products and it will die. Thus, the producers will discover that the MPAA has cost them millions of dollars. This guy was a fan. If you go after your fans, you deserve to lose them.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:21 PM on July 26, 2004


I think he's guilty of offering shitty copies of copyrighted material. For the love of God, people, if you're going to run a fansite for an hour-long TV show, at least have the decency to host 120+ MB files. 350 or so would be ideal, but....

Arrest his ass for that shit.
posted by graventy at 2:22 PM on July 26, 2004


I think he's guilty of offering shitty copies of shitty copyrighted material. I mean, Stargate SG-1? Puh-leeze.
posted by keswick at 2:58 PM on July 26, 2004


It's amazing to imagine that copyrite infringement plus international internet sales would create the "just cause" that the Patriot Act enabled here. The case is difficult to read. Small business people put under this strain. Makes me wonder what judge could put this into effect. There is interpretation in any law. But this case sounds like the emphasis is on fraud. How is that a security issue?

I wonder if I'm in the minority here, but I've welcomed the power behind the patriot act to enable law enforcement to persuit cases of national security. Here, I'm gripped by the implications. The law has a life of it's own, but whos side is it on here? Can Mr.McGaughey combat the stigma of the Patriot Act to put up a defense to the real charges?

The Patriot Act is already law, but a California State lawmaker is suggesting a bill to allow the taking of DNA from "suspects" who are arrested so that their DNA can be compared to a national registry of unsolved cases. The current DNA registry would increase some three fold. I see a troubling similarity between the PA and the logic behind this bill. In both cases the civil liberities of citizens under suspicion of a crime, elevates them in the criminal system.

If DNA can be taken from suspects, what stops anyone from being arested only for the reason to collect DNA evidence?
posted by xtian at 3:05 PM on July 26, 2004


Here's the truth...

Screw this guy and his BS sob story which is totally skewed and untrue trying to raise money to defend his sorry ass.

Honestly, I download mp3s and tv shows sometimes, but if you host a site where people can download ASF/DiVX copies of an entire season of a show - do you really expect the hammer not to come down on you eventually?


His story babbles about how it has something to do with linking to Amazon. It has NOTHING to do with that - read the post about it that I linked to above.
posted by twiggy at 3:14 PM on July 26, 2004


keswick, it sure beats shit like Friends, though...
posted by Irontom at 3:29 PM on July 26, 2004


But did "...the FBI invoked a provision of the USA Patriot Act to obtain financial records from his ISP."
posted by xtian at 3:31 PM on July 26, 2004


Here's the truth...

So what? He still doesn't deserve the treatment he's received or the potential penalty he faces, and it's still a misuse of FBI resources and the Patriot Act.
posted by homunculus at 3:42 PM on July 26, 2004


Also, here's the doj press release from April 13, 2004.
posted by ph00dz at 3:43 PM on July 26, 2004


...do you really expect the hammer not to come down on you eventually?

Here's a question - what if he's found not guilty?
posted by FormlessOne at 5:00 PM on July 26, 2004


Does anyone else find the entire Stargate franchise subtly racist? The basic premise is that the Egyptians were too stupid to have ever figured out how to build something like the pyramids, so it must have been an alien race. The series then borrows heavily from mythology to characterize the various aliens involved, but, there is a curious theme involved. Aliens who promulgated Norse mythology are all good guys. Aliens that represent Egyptian mythology are all bad guys. I've always had a love for scifi, even campy stuff, but this series kind of turned me off.
posted by MetalDog at 6:39 PM on July 26, 2004


For fuck's sake.
posted by keswick at 6:43 PM on July 26, 2004


This thread reminds me of something I read the other day in flagrant disregard:

Kaitlyn’s Law … makes it an infraction, punishable by a fine of $100 for any parent, legal guardian, or other person responsible for a child 6 years of age or younger, to leave that child unattended in a motor vehicle without the supervision of someone at least 12 years of age or older.

Kids DIE from this but it’s only a $100 fine. Meanwhile, if you copy a couple of music CDs you could do up to 10 years in jail AND pay up to a $250,000 fine.

posted by eustacescrubb at 6:47 PM on July 26, 2004


From the wayback machine, Jan 19, 2002. This is NOT about linking to Amazon, this is NOT about linking to someone else's bootlegs. He was hosting them. Earlier versions of the site are missing the other stuff that one generally associates with a fan site - sg1archive.com only had the bootlegs. The "fan site" stuff was added after the copyright violations were pulled.

I don't know if it's illegal to sell modified DVD players (to break the region encoding) but that probably made it a twofer for the MPAA.

Whether one agrees with copyright laws or not, he pretty flagrantly broke them.
posted by swell at 9:17 PM on July 26, 2004


i dont think any(sane)one is arguing whether or not he broke the law

THE FBI INVOKED THE PATRIOT ACT OVER A WORTHLESS AND HORRENDOUSLY VICTIMLESS CRIME.
posted by Satapher at 9:45 PM on July 26, 2004


On the other hand, say what you will, but the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act is being used as leverage, pure and simple, for a plea bargain. He will likely get some time in prison and be rendered penniless, whereas before the act he might have gotten a large but not poverty-inducing fine and some probation.
posted by calwatch at 10:34 PM on July 26, 2004


It's called SG1 fucking Archive, people. Clue, incoming, 12 o'clock.
posted by dhartung at 10:55 PM on July 26, 2004


Whether one agrees with copyright laws or not, he pretty flagrantly broke them.

And for that, we must sternly warn him "not to do that anymore" and let him go. Pffff.

People need to start getting it through their heads that copywrite infringment, while easy to do with the World Wide Web, is wrong, illegal and punishable. A few good example cases will start to bring this crap back in line. I don't feel sorry for the guy. If a case like this causes the thousands of other offenders out there to think twice about what they're doing, then good... it was worth it.
posted by Witty at 12:59 AM on July 27, 2004


I'm going to have to second keswick, for fuck's sake MetalDog. You should take a hard look at your assumptions, it's really only in your mind that they're implying anything of the sort. Crying racism in a case like this just serves to cheapen the term and make people less likely to take notice of real racism.
posted by TungstenChef at 3:06 AM on July 27, 2004


y6:All they had to do was ask him to take the files down. But no. They chose to ruin his life.

No, they sent him a cease-and-desist.

McGaughey:References were made to a cease and desist letter sent by the MPAA to an email address that did not exist.

Haven't found any good way to look at forensic whois information, but he was moving the site around between sg1archive.net, sg1archive.com, and gammaquad.com right before he "went legit". (Run whois on those three.) Hosts were moved from mydomain.com to liquidweb.com, and the feds indicate that he hosted overseas as well. (I can't find any evidence of this,tho.) He may have been surprised when they caught him, but he knew he was being chased.

Just a guess, but I suspect the contact info in whois may have been bogus.

McGaughey was not as surprised as he makes it sound.

McGaughey: Adam was first tipped off about the investigation when the FBI raided his and his fiancee's apartment in May of 2002

He'd been moving it around since Jan 2002, at least.

McGaughey: And perhaps most disturbing of all, it was later revealed that the FBI invoked a provision of the USA Patriot Act to obtain financial records from his ISP.

What provision? Which financial records? What ISP? Wouldn't these details bolster the claim? Why does this sound deliberately vague? I'm not arguing that the PATRIOT act isn't abused, or even that it's impossible that it was here. There's detail after detail in the rest of the post that turn out to be bogus when looked at, but then ... this thing just gets blown over in a single sentence?

We're talking about a fundraising letter, here. The crime is alleged to have happened before the May 2002 raid. ALL of the DVD sales and other stuff that he talks about being "good" for MGM happened after May 2002.

And providing ad space on the same page to this spyware purveyor doesn't help credibility. Claiming the PATRIOT act was involved is going to drive page hits on that ad straight through the roof.
posted by swell at 3:35 AM on July 27, 2004


The basic premise is that the Egyptians were too stupid to have ever figured out how to build something like the pyramids, so it must have been an alien race.

Vaguely related trivia: many 18th and 19th century archaeologists believed that the Egyptians and Romans must have traveled to the new world, because the Mayans and others could never have built their pyramids, etc. on their own.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 5:46 AM on July 27, 2004


Where, except in the fundraising letter, is it indicated that the PATRIOT ACT was use in conjuction with this bust?
I can find no proof of that allegation.

Now while I think it's absurd that you can get busted for rebroadcasting television, the fact is that it's illegal. It's illegal for you to host the files and it's illegal for you to link to the files even if you aren't hosting them. (Remember the DMCA case about the code for DECSS?)

I find it problematic that the production company and MPAA didn't contact him first and ask for removal of the material or links, especially since it appears that he had an ongoing relationship with members of the production company and/or cast. But they aren't required to do so. (They say they did, he says they didn't...)

That said, I think the DMCA is incredibly bad law. I think that most business units whose sole purpose is to protect profit are hardly the ones that should be left in charge of intellectual property. But that's a whole 'nother fight.

This guy ran an incredibly visible website and was flagrantly breaking the law. There are only two reasons for doing something that obvious: 1.) You're spoiling for a fight about the DMCA laws and you've put your ducks in a row in the hopes that they come at you...or 2.) You're a blooming idiot. I'm gonna have to go with idiot on this one.
posted by dejah420 at 7:10 AM on July 27, 2004


homunculous:

Re: "What if he's found not guilty?"

I don't care if he's found not guilty. Why not? Because:

a) It's relatively apparent that he had been hosting copies of the show.

b) It's CLEARLY apparent that if we can assume a) is true, then his post about what happened and why he wants you to donate money to his cause is intentionally and horrendously misleading. It makes it out to be a case of him getting arrested for linking to Amazon - a totally bogus claim.


If he's found not guilty, I'll consider him lucky as hell, and that's about it. The wayback machine shows that his site was linking to copyrighted material and his post shows that he's trying to say the issue was about linking to amazon. I feel no pity for him at all. There's too much shady business in his talk, given the actual issues we can look at for ourselves, for me to think he's anything but a scammer.
posted by twiggy at 7:17 AM on July 27, 2004


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