Walking the Plank

These days it seems like almost everybody knows somebody that got a knock on their door one day, and the next thing they knew their hard drive was gone and they’d been slapped by a $2,500 fine. The RIAA can sue for up TO $150,000 per song, though the average fine ends up being about $3,000, and almost 2,000 people have been sued since March 2004.These days it seems like almost everybody knows somebody that got a knock on their door one day, and the next thing they knew their hard drive was gone and they’d been slapped by a $2,500 fine. The RIAA can sue for up TO $150,000 per song, though the average fine ends up being about $3,000, and almost 2,000 people have been sued since March 2004.

Now for the first time, a jury in Virginia found a Brooklyn man, Barry Gitarts, guilty of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement in a federal court. He worked in a “first provider” or “release group” called Apocalypse Production Crew (APC), which makes pirated materials, such as CDs and DVDs, available to other sources and sites on the Internet. Gitarts faces the maximum penalty, which apparently is up to five years in prison, a fine of $250,000, three years of supervised release, and full restitution.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which is responsible for about 90 percent of all legitimate sound recordings produced and sold in the U.S., is very excited about this development.

“For the first time ever, a criminal online music piracy case went to trial, and the jury rendered a swift and unanimous verdict,” said Brad Buckles, Executive Vice President, Anti-Piracy, RIAA. “The crimes committed here–as well as the harm to the music community–are severe, and so are the consequences. We congratulate and thank the U.S. Attorney’s office for its work on this case and the larger crackdown against the Internet piracy rings that are responsible for leaks of pre-release music weeks and sometimes months before retail release. Groups like APC that specialize in leaking pre-release music are at the top of the piracy pyramid and the efforts of federal law enforcement have dealt a real blow to these kinds of operations.”