EliteTorrents admin faces 10 years in jail
26yo Daniel Dove has become the first person ever to be convicted by a jury for using BitTorrent to illegally distribute copyrighted material. It was on May 25th, 2005 that federal authorities first busted the famed EliteTorrents BitTorrent tracker site following the pre-release leak of a “Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith” workprint. Called Operation D-Elite, it was part of a nationwide federal crackdown against the illegal distribution of copyrighted movies, software, games and music over P2P networks. So far it’s resulted in the convictions of seven former leading members of EliteTorrents. Fellow admins, Scott McCausland, Grant Stanley, Sam Kuonen, and Scott Harvanek, all pleaded guilty to similar charges rather than take their cases to trial. Now Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich has announced that 26yo Daniel Dove has become the eighth person to have been successfully targeted by the Department of Justice and the first person ever to be convicted after a trial by jury in the US for using BitTorrent to engage in criminal copyright infringement.
The jury was presented with evidence that Dove was an administrator of the site’s “Uploaders,” who were responsible for supplying pirated content to the group. The evidence showed that Dove recruited members who had very high-speed Internet connections, usually at least 50 times faster than a typical high-speed residential Internet connection, to become Uploaders. The evidence also showed that Dove operated a high-speed server, which he used to distribute pirated content to the Uploaders. Dove’s sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 9, 2008 where he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. At its height, EliteTorrents attracted more than 125,000 members and distributed about 700 movies, which were downloaded a total of 1.1 million times.
Source: USDOJ, Zeropaid
Comments(116)
Dammnnnn
Thats sucks
R.I.P. Daniel
Sux big time
But O.J. and Robert Blake are found not guilty of murder. What’s the American justice system come to…a complete farce!
Its ALL about the money.
What a future for the jails! full of people that infringe copyright. Sad days ahead.
Good luck in court. They’re going to have some very crafty lawyers after you.
next http://www.rlslog.net
for uploading(uploadjackey) to earn money
damn this is bad…well daniel, whatever you do…just dont drop the soap.
I hope you don’t join them Martin! This is very sad for this guy. I hope they give him a light sentence.
really sad!
I was a member of elite-torrents all the way up until it shut down. It put all the rest of the torrent sites to shame, I loved it. Shame for Daniel, totally NOT fair.
was it one of these pay sites?
if so then no sympathy.
It would be sooo funny if they took RS down … we would all get busted and our trial date would be set after our death =) !
Too bad for him, let the hosting of to the outside countries with restrictive law.
Hello Alien tourists! and welcome to planet earth! a place where all your dreams come true! a place where child molesters get less prison time then peaceful quiet basement dwellers that upload bits of data.
not a paysite, it was free. I don’t even remeber any banner ads when I was there. “700 movies”, I’m pretty sure it was a bit more than that, plust tv shows, apps, etc, it was a huge site.
thatll teach him to like movies, software, games or music.
wonder what these companys’ goal is? to send their fans to jail or “pound me in the ass” prison.
wonder what kinda respect these guys will get in prison?
“so what you do?”
“STABED MY WIFE”
“& you?”
“ROBBED A BANK”
“& you?”
“…downloaded a star wars movie”
@ 16:nayab9
theres no money in child molesters though (not unless we burn them for fuel?)
It IS very silly that such offenses are treated as severely as murder, rape, battery, etc. etc… but I think the court has to make examples of people to stop future offenders. You must admit, though, that simply running a torrent site (which should be a totally non-criminal act anyway) is very different from what this guy was doing – uploading lots of copyrighted content on his own servers and actively distributing it… not just “pointing” to it.
Still sucks BIG TIME though.
Wow! Let’s put people in jail because some guy cost millionaires some money. Now this guy can’t buy his 3rd mansion because of torrents.
dont worry daniel, i will get you out soon…just going to visit my tattooist
Absolutely ludicrous..
Does anyone have Rapidshare, Megashares, Netload, or Megaupload links to..
HDNet.Strikeforce.Melendez.vs.Thomson.HDTV.XviD-aAF ??
Please..
10 years maximum, so the likely sentence will be a fraction of that, at a low security prison, and with good behavior he can be out with 1/3rd of his actual sentence served. So we may be talking months behind bars. Or rather, ’supervised living quarters’.
And when he gets out, he will be a legend on the scene.
try:
http://binsearch.info/fcgi/nzb.fcgi?q=HDNet+Strikeforce+Melendez+vs+Thomson+HDTV+XviD-aAF&max=250&adv_age=&server=
or:
HDNet.Fights.Unfiltered.Melendez.vs.Thomson.HDTV.X viD-OMiCRON
http://rapidshare.com/files/122516687/HDNet.Fights.Unfiltered.Melendez.vs.Thomson.HDTV.XviD-OMiCRON.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/122516723/HDNet.Fights.Unfiltered.Melendez.vs.Thomson.HDTV.XviD-OMiCRON.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/122516543/HDNet.Fights.Unfiltered.Melendez.vs.Thomson.HDTV.XviD-OMiCRON.part3.rar
He wont even get any jail time they mite put him on probation or community work
Yea, but he just farked his whole life, cause no will hire him with a criminal record.
Soon, downloaders will be sentenced also.
I better start raping to keep me from downloading.
I would be more nervous about the crippling fine they may try and slap on you
Any news about the Pacquiao-Diaz fight release yet?
I have a friend with a criminal record for piracy and he still has a job as a server administrator also yes they mite give him a 1000 dollar fine hope tholes company’s don’t sue him then hill be sue like 10mil and hill get stuck with a default if he cant pay it and that’s 1% or the 10mil
“Criminal copyright infringement”? Since when is copyright infringement a felony? Also, the oft-cited “DMCA-compliant torrent site” excuse of yore is pretty much pointless now, as the MAFIAA has successfully lobbied for the passing of bills that make 2nd party “facilitating” copyright infringement just as culpable.
Holy crap! 10 years for sharing ones and zeros… O_o
Though I hardly believe the sentence will actually be that long, but still GODDAMN!
Guess money is more important than let’s say human life in US, huh?
Thank god we have law on our side in here ^^
FUK DA MAN and FUK DA INTERNET POLICE
@33 “Guess money is more important than let’s say human life in US, huh? ”
Couldn’t have put it any simpler. Goes for the US and most of the world.
This is getting ridiculous.
The justice system does not add up to what they claim to do.
Banks, Phone(cell phone), universities/colleges, creditors COMPANIES steal MILLIONS & MILLIONS of HARD EARNED dollars from consumers EVERY SECOND and they WALK AWAY WITH IT while Daniel faces 10 years for some data on the internet?
The bank charges you to keep and take out your OWN MONEY?
Phone companies… SYSTEM ACCESS FEE? DATA PLANS? RIDICULOUS!
university/college…. $40,000?? FOR A DEGREE???
@ Jack Off
“Soon, downloaders will be sentenced also.”
I hope it won’t go that far… is it possible?
Like I always say the ritch ppl win end the poor go to jail
or like thise the hate pirats we are what the did make us two
So dont worry daniel just stand the jail thene countinue you piratse dont let the goverment win a pirat die as a pirat
Everything about this is STUPID!!! as mentioned in the comments millionairs make enough anyway..Some 1 downloads a film some music wow £5-£15 they lose, which is like pennys to them Really hurts they bank acount. This kind of stuff will go on for years. And the big question is are we going to build jails ? Instead of homes ? as we will need more jails to keep the downloaders of the street.
Nice post Psimms… I agree with you!
Well said !
Might be time to leave it to the kings of torrent, long live The Pirate Bay!
Shoot/Kill people == 5 Years jail term or not guilty
Uploading/Downloading pirated movie == 10 years
Gosh i bet all of those Juror all ever download, i am curious how they find those kind of juror, we all should be the juror because we know how wrong to sentence an uploader, we all know without pirated the whole industry is going down.
“The $26 billion/years movie industry need support to arrest kids swapping movies. While terrorist, identity theft, peodophile and malware writer (those who hurt the security and peoples of the USA) can continues whitout any fear, as the goverment agency in charge of aresting them is too “busy” saving Star Wars from the end of the evil pirates… (who don’t hurt any one, except known criminal organizations such as the MPAA/RIAA).”
@43 primo
I agree that police to concentrate on more important dangers, but piracy hurts more than just the MPAA/RIAA. That results in job losses for the little guy in his cubical. Piracy results in an underpaid staff member losing his house due t o pay cuts. primo, it’s a cycle that affects a lot of people. I agree that giving a ten year sentence in petty, but I can understand why ppl are upset. Piracy is like someone breaking into ur housing and stealing ur stuff.
Just Christ, get over it guys, he was uploading pre-release movies. This has nothing to do with downloading, it has nothing to do with p2p, it has nothing to do with bittorrent. He could have been mailing dvds in the mail and he still would have gotten arrested.
Scenario:
You get caught with child porn.
Act of having child porn: 2-4 years in prison.
Act of ILLEGALLY downloading child porn if it had a copyright symbol: 10 YEARS!
moral of the story: whilst obtaining child porn, make sure you buy it on dvd first.
“…Piracy results in an underpaid staff member losing his house due t o pay cuts…”
Um, can you show me some evidence of this? I don’t honestly know where you’re getting this information, and I’m curious the factuality of it. Any sources? Do you have any kind of hard data to support this theory how “the little guy” is being run out of his house because of piracy?”
Yeah, the economy is pretty bad right now (Not due to piracy, I might add), and in cases of downsizing due to poor economic situations, the least skilled workers are usually the first to go anyway.
To blame job loss on piracy is ridiculous in my opinion. The fat cats in hollywood & the music biz are doing just fine thankyouverymuch, (not to worried about that little guy in cublicle “C” btw) force feeding us & churning out the same old garbage & expecting a premium return on it.
I don’t mind paying for quality. In fact, I make a point of supporting (paying for) good movies/music, but to compare a downloaded file to ROBBING someone’s house & physical property is just really, really stupid & completely illogical to me.
Think about it.
@danny
Since you can’t legally buy child porn nor can one make profit of it, sharing hollywood movies is much more bigger “crime”
us law system is one fúcked up thing.
10 years? wtf its not like he shot somebody.
its all because george lucas wanted him to pay for releasing the star wars film early. he promised the head of the justice department a bj and a part in star wars 7
Elitetorrents wasn’t a pay site, they did take donations which in turn would improve your ratio.
The biggest problem here is that this Daniel did not neither make the initial rip nor share the copies. All he did was run a site that indexes what other people share, and that has been criminalized now… Now I’m waiting for the top brass of Google, Yahoo and MSN being indicted because their indexing sites (so-called search engines) links directly to petabytes of pedophilia, terrorist propaganda and instructions, sale and proliferation of illegal drugs (medical and recreational) and of course countless copyright violations.
So you can get 10 years for indexing links that doesn’t even point directly to the stuff but not if you link directly to the stuff and happen to be a huge enough corporation… Go figure.
Milkshake is commenter paid by industry. foff idiot.
“Milkshake
That results in job losses for the little guy in his cubical. Piracy results in an underpaid staff member losing his house due t o pay cuts.”
But idiots like you got job bc of piracy , so stfu.
“What a future for the jails! full of people that infringe copyright. Sad days ahead”
lol imagine it now, “bend over while i insert my firewire”
How about Batman.Gotham.Knight.DVDRip.XviD?
HAHA!!
That whats happens to P2P-f4gs like him.
Im glad that stup1d criminal got caught.
I doubt he will face actual jail time. A shame nonetheless..
timo: he’s been tried and found guilty already. Now it’s the sentencing hearing.
And Manguy: He will likely do about 7 years of it. They are out to make a BIG example. I am with you all when you say it’s bulls hit. Kill a mofo and get out in 10. Download a movie and get out in 7. WTF?
“Fellow admins, Scott McCausland, Grant Stanley, Sam Kuonen, and Scott Harvanek, all pleaded guilty to similar charges rather than take their cases to trial.”
Wow, there’s no justice in the US.
@AntiP2P – why are you even on this site then?
Don’t you have some goats or cattle to breed with or something?
Honestly, be a little more productive with all that precious time of yours a$$clown.
10 years in jail over some copyrights… Daniel should have just killed the prosecutor with his car. Vehicle manslaughter is only 3-5 years. Could have saved himself a ton of jail time.
really running a torrent site you can’t be too smart unless your servers are based in sweden like the piratebay then you might be untouchable…the users have to host the files from their local pc pretty stupid if you ask me
but that workprint of star wars was top notch i remember my friend gave me a burnt copy, george lucas must of been real pissed off
man this really sucks… it’s just unfair, I don’t see a point in the whole system
I’ve written down the IP addresses of all commenters to this article. Soon you all will have a visit from my FBI friends.
Do not go to elitetorrents, don’t click the enter site button.
http://www.elitetorrents.net/vtrack.php
is a ip logger, which is executed when you click the enter site.
..and rape and pedeophelia gives a lot less….. what a wonderful system we have.
@RIAA. Go get blown by your mother. Why do so many fockwits come to this site. My IP is: 00.00.00.00 Subnet is 00.00.00.00 Log that you piece of sh!t.
When I get caught, I won’t be surprised…
I’m downloading metadata a.k.a movies for free.
Is this legal…?
Hell f**ken no!!!
Do the crime, do the time’ que no!
@66 [RIAA-if it gets deleted]
Please f*ck off!!! Pretty Please…With sugar on top!
P.S
Sorry for the double post!!!
Had to type this…
quote @johnny316 “really running a torrent site you can’t be too smart unless your servers are based in sweden like the piratebay then you might be untouchable…the users have to host the files from their local pc pretty stupid if you ask me”
well johnny316 the piratebay servern is not in sweden, they have some/couple server OUTSIDE sweden(I dont know were there are and I dont care)and they(admin and other who have admin power)didn´t distribute the copyrighted material(they have a life, they dont have the time to see every things that Uploaders upload do, atleast what it said in the newspaper)…..I dont know what Danial Dove did(if he only was admin, own the server or distribute/Upload)but 10year is to much if he was distribute/Uploader and if he only was admin or own the server then i would say NOT guilty…
me i only download Anime and buy my DVD´s, but know i have to start buying blu-ray dvd and they are not cheap, have 5 in my collection…
What a joke, you get a fraction of that sentence in the UK for killing a child through drink driving (as happens often sadly).
Yeah, but let’s hope this doesn’t pave a road for stiffer sentences for those to come. You know how the American judicial system is they love making money off criminals. Think about how much money is made off of people getting locked up now a days. I shouldn’t have to go in to detail on how they exactly do that. It’s no mystery! For those of Elite Torrents, my thoughts are with you.
@66 RIAA -
Oooh, how exciting! I already packed a light lunch and have my bull$hit to english dictionary all ready for when your little anti piracy goons come to visit….should I put some tea on as well? (~rolls eyes~)
Honestly, what are you 12 years old or something posting lame scare tactics like that…..too bad I just can’t reach into my computer screen & just strangle people like you.
Not to mention the sheer stupidity of pretending to be RIAA and pretending to know the IP addresses of all commentaters and pretending their FBI friends will be around. Because we dared to post a comment. On a privately held and controlled website. Oh noes.
Well sad for the guy getting jailed for 10 years but it can’t really be a surprise to anyone anymore. This is American so-called Justice. It’s about money leeching corporate greedy fat cats and nothing else. Don’t even start about how it’s hurting artists. The music and movie “industry” is the real problem.
Knowingly conduct illegal and easily traceable criminal activities might get you jail time?
Who knew?
you people don’t understand this that downloading is increasing day by day because computer and high speed is becoming available to almost everyone now…If they don’t stop it now then there is will loooooooooooots of case will be floating all around the court…Their mission is STOP PIRACY NOW OR SUFFER LATER….Now a days I barely even watch unless someone tells me to watch it…HOLLYWOOD is soooooooooo boring now a days…Getting 100% money won’t give hollywood good writers, actors and scripts…IT WILL STILL BE THE SAME…
Hahaha FFA free for All ! land of the cowards home of the corrupt,
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can you give me an invite to elitetorrents, PLEASE ?
well it uncle sam,the cia,and fbi and riiaa and mpaa want world domination of what people can do on the internet,even if the internet went down people will still buy bootleg copies,america is full of billionaires who rob people who r poor in there food ,and fuel hikes listen to this guys the bible says no man rich or poor will survive it what coming,with the icecap melting not even the american bullies in the whitehouse or washington will survive the raising waters so there ,go and f.ck yourself and get real criminals,it not our fault if the rich people sepnd all therem oney on aprties,40 houses,20 cars they dont need it there fault not mine
Real smart of his “buddies” all pleading guilty and selling eachother out.
If you are going down, don’t take everyone with you. Lock up the court system through appeals and confusion, costing the legal system and tax payers millions in the process.
Also, go back to Newsgroups folks. Why you guys use Torrents which completely advertises your IP address is beyond me!
They call it piracy but most of all of us buy the dvd or cd and share it if we like we bought the copyright right?
in my eyes you buy it you own it! do what ever you want with
it even if you share it with a few friends…
just a thought..
can they really do anything about tv shows u get them easily off cable?
so the chances are the pepole getting arrested that dling from this site are so torrent no longer safe 2 use?
is the downloaders or uploaders getting in more trouble
going to jail for sharing??? Tax dollars going to waste!
whats that Newsgroups site
honestly i don’t even dl this site i just use it to see the new things thats out
Yea… This Suxs Alot he got busted for …well thats the thing NOTHING wow he uploaded something .Its not like he shot the president is it?.
10 YEARS Lol that sux.
Im only 13 and i do this stuff TO MARK NOT SELLING ANYTHING but i download them for my own use so i dont see the poblem.
LONG LIVE DANIEL!
THEY CAN JUDGE ME AFTER I’M DEAD. UNTIL THEN, I’LL PISS IN THEIR FACES. PS. LICK MY SALTY NUTS.
he should of seen what was coming after posting one of the worlds most popular movies before its cinema premiere. we all know that the American justice system can be a real pain in the ass when dealing with filesharing.
i got busted. they made me pickup trash along side the highway in a pirate suit. oh they made me do a public service commercial on a local cable station with puppets.
This is a joke. While we are at it why not throw people who work at safe-injection sites in jail. We in the biz call this a “perversion of justice”. Making an example of someone goes against the very nature of the system. Like I said what a joke.
It’s a shame!
#6 Nicely put “Its ALL about the money” thats what the great U.S. of A is all about.
FWCK COPYRIGHT! FWCK THE ENTIRE SYSTEM PHAILING! THERE’S FAR MORE SERIOUS STUFF GOING ON IN REAL LIFE THAN PEOPLE SHARING SOME MADE UP DIGITAL “INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY”!!!
WTF 10 years. people have gotten less time for killing someone. marlon brandos son did like 6 yrs for killing his sisters boyfriend. this so stupid. if u want to punish him fine but a prison sentence like this is ridiculous. and u know these sites helped a lot of shows or music that no one would have heard of get more popular. some people actually will become a fan that spends money after seeing something interesting. for those who dont well they never were going to buy the product anyway. these companies have no right to count money they have not made yet. i never got that. they didn’t make the money so how can they say they lost revenue. whos to say most pirates would buy the product if they cant get it for free. i would never buy something just cause i couldn’t get it. so they cant lose money they never made to begin with. its all so crazy. the billion dollar companies r not losing anything, especially games, that sector has been growing in profits year after year. how about movie and music companies make some worthwhile stuff instead of the junk release lately then i will go out and buy ur product. with or without pirating they would still be on the downward slide cause they have made nothing interesting in ages.
I pay for any movie, album or game that I think is worth purchasing, even if I download it first. Most movies are so crappy that I wouldn’t want to pay for them, but if I like a movie and think I might like to watch it again some day, I will buy it on DVD. If downloading movies wasn’t possible I would just watch them a lot less, and I would buy less dvds. I only rent console games because they cost so much to buy, but I buy any pc game that I like. Overall I don’t feel sorry for the giant corporations because their profits are still incredibly high despite their complaining. They should be in jail themselves for expecting people to pay such criminally high prices for everything.
Greedy bastards, all you do is think about yourselves.
as opposed to OURSELVES
Wrong he’s not the first in finland the Finnreactor admins got convicted 3 years ago.
Somebody has to be the scapegoat for every crime. It’s an unfortunate job.
RIAA, MPAA and all the other fat cat sponsored mafia thugs make the completely baseless argument that every download is a lost sale. They have no proof of this and never will. It’s racketeering pure and simple. Majority of people won’t buy most of what they download, because it just isn’t worth it!
But instead of owing up to this the suits resort to mafia bullying and racketeering tactics with the aid of the corporate owned Government.
Oh and if you disagree, please do provide extensive proof that those 1.1 million downloads were in fact lost sales…
Keep pushing the common man – It is only time, that the common man will push back.
A REVOLUTION IS COMING!
Help stop the NWO! (new world order)
I like chocolate
@100 I totally agree with you.
At least with (most) software, you can download and evaluate it for FREE and then if its decent you buy it. But with movies, a persons only legal option is to rent it and if its decent buy the DVD. The problem is its NOT FREE and if the movie sucked it cost you the rental. I’m not a cheap a$$, just frugal.
Also avoiding the BAD rental costs by downloading and evaluating movies sure helps me to save for all those DVD purchases.
you know the solution? Stop going to the movies theaters. They would lose tons of money, millions and millions… #¨@%! them!
he’s not in trouble for running the site – he’s in trouble for the fact he ran servers uploading pirated content that his site tracked.
People should stop buying any music/video BR/DVDs/CDs as a protest! Without the money, there will be no money for best advocates, no money to bribe politicians, no criminal charges… they will just bite around for a short time, but after that MPAA and RIAA will just die like a starving dogs. As for me, i will never buy anything from them anymore, i am not crazy to finance my own way to jail!
Pursue us, if you dare. For who are you, to judge my actions? I could easily do the same to you. You charge $16.00 for CD’s, that cost you $1.20 to make. You charge $20.00 for DVD’s, it cost you $3.50 to make. The Movie Theaters, don’t even get me started on that one. Kids screaming and crying, kicking my seat, getting up walking in front of me, in the middle of the movie. Being distracted from the movie, by people text messaging, or talking on there cell phones. So you lost a few dollars, here and there. It’s your own damn fault, and not anyone else’s. You robbed us blind, for countless years. Technology has provided us away, to simply take back, what belongs to us. The more you carry on, the more lawsuits you bring, will finally be the death dealing blow, to your company. It’s funny, years ago, not many people knew of downloading so called illegal content. Thanks to Metallica, and the Music Industry, and lawsuits, you have opened Pandora’s box, and it can not be, nor will it be, unopened. Do I feel bad, or sorry for what I do, No. Apparently you don’t feel sorry for getting rich off me, my friends, and family. So continue your lawsuits, and price gouging to boot. For one day soon, we’ll out number you.
@100 – Right on dude. I agree.
As far as sentencing goes I say taking away your computer, probation, or maybe a lot of community service would be a just “punishment.” This whole 10 years thing is ridiculous. My hypothesis is that they’re using him as a example; that or he will get less prison time and they’re just being @holes. It still all just craziness. The economy is already bad, and yet he we are using all our valuable tax dollars to pay for pompous FBI rookies who get a hard on from zapping pirates. Its just the government of America at its best; as usual. :\
“Land of the Free”
-Unbreakable /Bmore
thescene@hush.ai
they should be putting that effort into catching people who are committing crimes that are actually harming people. So what a movie company a few less dollars for that movie. Most people buy it even if they download it. They should be catching those who upload child porn on the internet, not somebody who uploaded some freaking movie that made millions of dollars regardless. 10 years for uploading movies. ridiculous.
at least is not a death sentence.