As if you need more reasons to be careful or (better yet)
anonymous online, this past week, an illegal file sharer was fined $1.5 million
for distributing movies through BitTorrent.
So here are the details: The defendant, Kywan Fisher, was
sued earlier this year by adult entertainment company Flava Works after being
caught sharing 10 of their films on torrent sites. Fisher had actually
purchased the films originally, but decided to spread the love online.
Unfortunately for Fisher, Illinois federal court Judge John
Lee wanted none of his love and ordered Fisher to shell out $150,000 per movie.
“Defendant's conduct was willful to the extent that he
copied or distributed Flava Works, Inc.' intellectual property at least 10
times and caused the videos to be infringed or downloaded at least 3,449 times,”
Lee wrote in a legal memo.
You’re probably thinking this is a pretty harsh punishment
for sharing a few tasteful films. This guy must have had the worst
representation. Well, as it turns out, he had no representation. He never
showed up for court.
Look, we aren’t going to tell you what you should or should
not do online. In fact, at SumRando, we have no idea what you do online. But
should you choose to break the law, at least be careful about it. You know who
wasn’t using a VPN like SumRando? Kywan “I owe $1.5 million” Fisher, that’s
who.
And should you get caught, for goodness sake, show up in
court!
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