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Music pirate gets suspended sentence in Australia

11 September 2009 20:58 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 4 comments

A music pirate that was allegedly the head of a piracy syndicate operating across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific was yesterday sentenced to 15 months jail and 300 hours community service in the Sydney District Court. "These are offences where the deterrence of others is paramount," Judge Colin Charteris said.

"No penalty other than a period of imprisonment is appropriate. What you have done is rob the artists of their work and now you will have to give something back." The man had been convicted on 32 separate charges arising from the illegal manufacturing of more than 50,000 remixed compilation albums.

Judge Charteris said the parliament had made it clear that copyright theft was a serious crime and it was important the courts "protect performers and artists so they can be adequately rewarded for their efforts." The Australian Federal Police and Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) had broken up the piracy operating, serving 11 warrants across Sydney.

The District Court ordered the jail sentence be conditionally suspended for a period of 3 years.

Permalink to this article

Anti-piracy raids, court cases in Australia (2 September 2009)

Australian police bust piracy ring (28 April 2008)

Australian police carry out anti-piracy raid in Melbourne (3 April 2008)

Australian country music pirate arrested (18 October 2007)

Australian ISPs under pressure to use filters, cut off alleged pirates (2 September 2007)

Pirate website shut down, 2,000 DVDs seized (1 September 2007)

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joe777 (Member) 11 September 2009 23:33
Why dont the coutrs tell the truth and say "You have robbed the distribution companies(i.e the record labels)of THEIR work and now you must give something back" Lets face it the labels are the ones who own the copyright to the music. It would be nice to see a label executive being told by a judge "you have robbed your artist and now you have to pay them back more than you have in the past, because you are a common thief. Ok not all the labels are robbing sods but the major players certainly are. All this propaganda over 'its the artist you are hurting nonsense' needs to be addressed pronto cause I dont think the general public know exactly how much money the ARTIST is loosing to the label. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 11 September 2009 23:36
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 12 September 2009 15:09
Artists get sht from labels unless they can sell millions of records..... [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 13 September 2009 16:29
Thats pathetic they should have given him longer and not over three years and 300 hours thats just a slap on the wrist for this guy he will just do the short time and come back and start where he left off. [ + quote]
Coyote42 (Newbie) 17 September 2009 10:41
*Originally posted by borhan9:* Thats pathetic they should have given him longer and not over three years and 300 hours thats just a slap on the wrist for this guy he will just do the short time and come back and start where he left off. Exactly, they should have sent him to prison where he could learn some real crimes. Sounds like Australia would rather have murderers, rapists, and drug dealers, than tax paying citizens. (Note I base this off the fact that people sent to prison for a lesser crimes are highly likely to learn new "skills" over their incarceration.) [ + quote]