I Got Busted Pirating Music. Here Is My Story.
December 10, 2007 Posted in Tech
So you fancy your downloaded music? Well, guess what, you pirating son of a beyotch: the Man’s gonna getcha. Believe me – I know firsthand.
One moment, I was floating through the web, using Kazaa and Limewire to download my favorite Ace of Base songs, then BOOM! I’m doin’ time (well not really, but you’ll see).
Let’s backtrack a bit. I had just persuaded my mother to bring my desktop to the fraternity house. Let the guiltless hiding-of-the-porn-in-a-separate-folder, illegal downloading free-for-all commence! An album here, a movie there – it was cooler than penguin sh*t, which is way cool. My roommate wanted in. “Do you mind if I download this new song I love?”
“Sure,” I said confidently, feeling like Jesus Himself, feeding the masses with fish and bread, well, username and login, in this case.
Then all the “brothers” in my fraternity file started sharing off the same machine. Before I knew it, the popped-collar posse and I had gathered more than 200,000 downloaded pieces of media.
One day, the phone rang.
All I recall are the words, “under investigation for illegally downloading and file sharing,” coming through the receiver. It’s pretty much like getting that “I’m pregnant” call from your ex-girlfriend. (Not that I’d know anything about that.)
Next, a thick envelope was delivered to the house. Inside it was a list of my entire Kazaa media library, along with an official notice to appear in court. Maybe just a warning will serve, right? Nuh-uh. Not only did I land the maximum fine, but the judge also read off a few of the more interesting names of files I’d downloaded, in front of my parents. Hearing ‘red-headed slut, bondage, facial’ and ‘Horse f***ers,’ in a courtroom in front of my parents was God-awful.
Total fine: $10,000.
Total punches in head from father: 67.
Total pride left after all was said and done: 0.
No matter how much money is coughed up in fines or how many kids get made into examples, the downloading will continue … just not on my machine.
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I read that this kid has since died of gonorrhea. If you get a second, say a short prayer for him.
Total fine: $10,000.
Total punches in head from father: 67.
Total pride left after all was said and done: 0.
Total Lies – 100%
Oh, so you think no one gets fined? I saw this on digg and just got pissed off that they are still going after people for downloading.
I go to UPenn and my f*cking school gave 22 of us up for posting our music to a e-serve file. Fine?? $15,000 each. Oh yeah, plus probation and now I am screwed if I want to get a job at a real company.
Blow me stopposting
ha-ha-ha JThompson is pissed because he is forever in debt to the RIAA. That is what you get for being a music downloading scumbag pirate.
I always find it hard to believe when I hear about people getting fined for downloading music, if only because I can't believe the RIAA is daft enough to sniff out people downloading Ace of Base.
If herpes is free, Ace of Base should be free.
My only problem – whether this story is true or not, which doesn't really matter – is that the idea of actually going after college students for this is ridiculous. They make so much damn money off of us, why should it matter. Ruin a life and fine me thousands of dollars so Amy Winehouse can blow her money on heroine…OH OK – that's fucking fair.
hey, stopposting… I think you should stopbreathing.
It did happen and now I have to make the money to pay for this by doing the exact things I enjoyed to illegally download and watch….
Namely putting a certain something in or around a certain farm animal… That's where the big bucks are.
I'll assume PKreds is the author of this story Pat Keegan? Good luck with your farm animals.
His next story: Getting indicted on federal animal porn charges.
You're shilling for the RIAA. And not being very creative or subtle about it. Nice try.
I don't bother buying or downloading music as most of it is pants. For the rest, I have radio. One day it will be illegal to *not* buy music as soon as you hear it, and buy it repeatedly (whether you want the damn music or not)
Pics or it didn't happen.
So many haters. WTF- The guy got busted- he paid a fine- says he would still do it, just do it differently. How could he be involved with the RIAA???
Nice mug shot :D
I completely belive people are getting fined for downloading music and it completely sucks if this is actually true. But the story doesn't seem realistic at all and I think you're lying out your ass.
If it is true I'm sorry to hear you have been beaten down by the experience and are now just another drone working for the man.
{sniff sniff}
Smells like BULLSHIT in here
I'm not anywheres near the level of geek to be able to do the pirate thing but I can smell bullshit!
Where are the documents from the police from? Where are the court filings? Where is the paper trail?
look at the fingers holding that sign in the 'mug shot'
either thats photoshopped or your fingers are real fuckin skinny.
This entire post is bullshit.
The RIAA doesn't give a shit about porn, they don't represent anyone who deals in it. They also don't give a shit about your media library, unless it includes infringing files, and then the lawsuit would only cover those specific files.
Patti Santangelo was fined 32,500 for 6 files, your $10,000 maximum fine is also bullshit.
Good day.
Wow… yeah that's what you get for using Kazaa… Fucking R-Tard… Not that this post is legit anyway…
This was in 2002, when Kazaa was the best out there – Napsterhad just gone legit and Limewire hadn't gotten huge yet.
Yes, the mugshot is fake and photoshopped. I didn't get arrested just had to appear in court and pay a fine, so no mugshot was necessary.
The fine was not actually $10K… it was originally, but we were able to get it down to $4K and it ended up being closer to $5K with court fees.
I was not guilty of downloading, as I found out… they are not after the 'little guys' as they called it, the ones who download, but rather, they are after the ones who upload most of the files. Since I had so many files to be uploaded they got me and a few others at Drexel University as they did a network sweep. I believe there were 6 of us in total.