Pirate Banned From Using Linux

dsinc writes "A guy who uploaded the latest Star Wars movie got arrested, pleaded guilty to 'conspiracy to commit copyright infringement' and 'criminal copyright infringement' and got jail and home confinement. As part of his home confinement, he agreed to install some tracking software on his computer. The problem is He's an Ubuntu Linux user and the gov't doesn't have any tracking software for Linux. So he's been told that he must use Windows for the term of his confinement. Looks like a case of cruel and unusual punishment to me"

Transcript from Court Case

[eldavojohn (898314)]

United States Magistrate Judge Carla Woehrle: After pleading guilty, you are hereby sentenced to confinement at your house ...
Marc Hoaglin: No change in lifestyle there.
Judge Carla Woehrle: ... and to serve up to 6 months jail time ...
Marc Hoaglin: Sure, why not? I'll get a chance to lift some weights.
Judge Carla Woehrle: ... and to install government monitoring software on your computer ...
Marc Hoaglin: I guess that's only fair.
Judge Carla Woehrle: ... that only runs on Windows.
Marc Hoaglin: DO NOT WANT!!!

Re:Transcript from Court Case

[by Anonymous Coward]

Maybe he can run the tracking software under WINE?

Damn them!

[eln (21727)]

This is clearly a Ninja plot.

Jail for movie piracy? WTF?

[rjshields (719665)]

I read comments on here about video cameras in the UK and why don't we stick up for our rights. Here is a case of someone being sent to to jail for pirating a movie. This is not an offence worthy of jail time at tax payers' expense. When are you guys going to say enough of this bullshit?

Re:Jail for movie piracy? WTF?

[everphilski (877346)]

Not just pirating, but releasing it before the theaters did. That's a key bit of information you and the summary missed out on. And he admits complete guilt. Game over, man.

Re:Jail for movie piracy? WTF?

[SydShamino (547793)]

So as long as a white-collar criminal stashes his money away where the government can't get at it, there should be no punishment?

Sorry, jail time is appropriate for some economic crimes. Maybe not in this case, no, but your blanket statement just doesn't work in all blanket cases.

And on the seventh day, he recompiled from source

[richdun (672214)]

The problem is He's an Ubuntu Linux user

And here I was hoping God used Mac OS X (yes, I'm sure there's a "daemon" joke in there, but I'll leave it at one bad joke per post).

Good to know

[hax0r_this (1073148)]

I've been wondering if that software works on Linux. Good to know that it doesn't.

sudo apt-get install evil-government-monitoring-program

Why can he use a computer at all?

[Oz0ne (13272)]

See, if I was the judge, I'd say he wasn't allowed to use a computer, period, for the duration of whatever sentence is being carried out.

Re:Why can he use a computer at all?

[kosmosik (654958)]

Maybe because the judge wanted him to be punished (home arrest) but not exactly make him a retard.

I mean nowdays Internet access is *essential*. It is like having a phone or a car. Imagine you have a job and do DUI. You will be only allowed to use car like 8-9am and 4-5pm (so you can go to work). Without your car you wouldn't be able to work and thus you will loose your job and become a citizen that parasites on others. I don't think that law system is built to punish citizens this way that they loose their jobs and became parasites on others. That would be stupid.

So with that in mind the judge allowed the man to use Internet (maybe for working from home - quite usual) but he wishes to monitor his activity.

I don't see anything wrong here.

But I don't know why don't they force him (if he wishes to use the Internet) to just use a special broadband service for convicts which is monitored server-side. Such setup would not require any client side software.

Feisty Fawn not so innocent

[Mr. Lwanga (872401)]

Sounds like the latest "Catch a Hacker" episode of Dateline NBC. Ace investigative reporter Michelle Madigan uncovers a new operating system used by hackers, pirates and cybercriminals to go on an internet crime spree. What is Ubuntu and why is the government helpless to stop it?

Best reason of all to swtich

[Torodung (31985)]

the gov't doesn't have any tracking software for Linux

Gee. That sounds like a bulletproof marketing slogan for any distro.

"Linux: The only operating system the NSA doesn't 0wn."

--
Toro

Linux is my life man

[kentrel (526003)]

"It isn't the fact that I have to be monitored that bothers me, it is the fact that I have [to] restructure my life (different OS, different software on that OS)"

In jail for 5 months and he thinks changing Operating System needs more of a life restructuring.

Perhaps, this sentence will give him the perfect opportunity to finally find a life outside of his linux box.

So can he use a pirated version of Windows?

[Kazoo the Clown (644526)]

Or are they going to buy a legit copy for him?

Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route?

[Absorbed (1122443)]

He could always use VMWare.

Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route?

[maxwell demon (590494)]

Or he could have offered them to port the tracking tool to Linux. :-)

Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route?

[ajs (35943)]

One presumes that he has been required to surrender his hardware (all of it) to the authorities for the installation of the tracking software which phones home to indicate what he's doing (at whatever level of granularity it tracks such things).

He could probably get away with VMWare or the like running Linux under Windows, but that would just run the risk of landing him in jail.

His best bet is Cygwin [cygwin.com], the suite of open source tools for Windows that includes everything you need to essentially subvert a Windows desktop and make it think it's a Unix-like OS. It's not 100% perfect, but it's a far cry better than pure Windows. I regularly use a Windows laptop with X running under it, ssh to my office with X-forwarding and several gnome-terminals running on my work desktop.

Other than that, the only native Windows apps I use are Firefox and Thunderbird, so it's often hard to tell what OS it actually is.

Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route?

[superpulpsicle (533373)]

They can really punish him by making him run windows ME.

Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route?

[rickb928 (945187)]

"They can really punish him by making him run windows ME."

Um, They can really punish him by making him * try* to run windows ME.

Re:Why...

[by Anonymous Coward]

Take it in context...

They probably offered him a deal to spend home time versus all jail time if he agreed to certain terms. They are not FORCING him to use windows, they are saying that if he wants the easy path of punishment, he has to abide by certain rules.

Also the requirement would only be for if he uses a computer at all. He's perfectly welcome to simply not use one at all.

All in all, he got off easy and just has to fullow the very simple rules in order to get the easy version of punishment.

Re:Why...

[shogarth (668598)]

Why? Because he's a convict still serving his sentence (that's why he's under home confinement). If he doesn't like the terms of home confinement, he can always go back in the slammer and have even more restricted access.

Re:Why...

[db32 (862117)]

Yeah, damn dirty rapist murdering prick...oh wait...he uploaded the new Star Wars. Well, I guess this is the joy of treating copyright infringement as a criminal offense. Unless of course the infringement wasn't the offense, and that subjecting that many people to the latest Star Wars is considered a crime against humanity.

Re:Virtual machine

[Chandon Seldon (43083)]

People have made this comment on every single thread on this topic everywhere (Slashdot is the third site I've seen this story on), and it's still wrong and (frankly) nonsensical.

The requirement is that they run software that can monitor his computer activities. The complication is that the software is Windows-only so it won't run on his Linux system. Your suggestion accomplishes neither party's goal: It wouldn't let them monitor his computer activity, and it wouldn't let him run Linux as the OS on his machine (he'd have to run Windows, and then screw around, and then maybe run some Linux apps in a VM while still paying for a Windows license and dealing with Windows crap).

Re:Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

[Chandon Seldon (43083)]

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

Sure, but he's done the jail time, and he's not complaining about the probation term at all.

Just because someone has committed a crime does not mean that the government gets to impose arbitrary terms on them without an explicit court ruling. It especially doesn't mean that the government should be mandating specific non-optimal technical choices that interfere the livelyhood of an expert in a technical field.

Mandating Windows to a computer expert so they can be tracked for piracy is like mandating a Chrysler mini-van to a farmer because he beat his wife. Sure, you can carry produce to market in a mini-van, but making the farmer buy a new Chrysler mini-van to replace his perfectly functional Toyota pickup truck is absurd.

Re:It's not the having to use windows

[dougmc (70836)]

Now, a $100 fine atop 5 months in jail doesn't seem excessive to me, but the felony rap making him unemployable does.

Having the `indirect' penalties assigned to you for a crime being much worse than the `official penalties' is hardly a new thing.

By `indirect' I mean things like not being able to get a good job, being shunned/tormented/killed by people merely because you're a registered sex offender, etc.

By `direct' I mean going to jail, paying fines, probation, even having to register as a sex offender.