Canadian Movie Pirate ‘maVen’ Sent To Jail

Written by Ernesto
From http://torrentfreak.com/

Geremi Adam, a member of the movie release group ‘maVen’ has been sentenced to two and a half months in prison. The 27 year-old Montreal resident, who was referred to the Canadian police by the FBI, pleaded guilty to distributing two major motion pictures.

Half a decade ago ‘maVen‘ was one of the most active movie release groups on the Internet, known for distributing high quality ‘Telesync‘ versions of major blockbuster titles. In the summer of 2006 ‘maVen’ releases suddenly halted, and it later became apparent that the FBI had caught one of its key members.

An FBI investigation into ‘maVen’ had been running for some time and was handed to the Canadian Police in April 2006. A few months later Geremi Adam was arrested after he allegedly recorded the movies “How to Eat Fried Worms” and “Invincible” at a Montreal movie theater.

They seized his laptop and other equipment and later released him, only for him to be arrested again at another theater just a month later. According to the police, Adam had been selling copies of movies on the Internet using the alias ‘maVen,’ which were then re-sold on the web and the streets.

Following Adam’s arrest came a 14 month wait as the police combed computer systems and equipment looking for evidence to convict him. The FBI had labeled him the ‘World Leader’ in Internet piracy and his case went before court several months later.

Today the verdict came in, and the Court sentenced Adam to two and a half months in prison – the prosecution had demanded four. The defense lawyer had argued for community service because Adam suffers from depression and a troubled childhood, but despite these arguments, the Court decided to opt for a prison sentence.

As of today there are still dozens of ‘maVen’ releases available on BitTorrent, although most of these files have no active downloaders anymore.

Legoland Cancels Plans for Michael Jackson Lego Figure

By Ashley Harrell

Legoland intended to honor the late King of Pop by putting his four-inch Lego likeness on display at its Miniland U.S.A. park in Carlsbad, California. But today officials announced the plan had been abandoned due to "unresolved legal issues."

"We were looking forward to installing a small tribute to Michael Jackson in Miniland," said the park's general manager Peter Ronchetti. "However, legal matters have come to light that prevent us from displaying the model in the park."

Calls to the Legoland press office have not yet been returned, and no information about the specifics of the legal issues has been released.

The mini-MJ would have become one of several Lego celebrities inhabiting Legoland parks, including a mini-Obama, a mini-Elvis and mini-Aretha Franklin. The lego figurine was set to be stepping out of a mini-limo in front of a Miniland's Grauman's Chinese Theatre, surrounded by mini paparazzi and mini fans.

Photo: Legoland California

50% of Charges Against Pirate Bay Dropped

Written by enigmax on February 17, 2009

There has been high drama on the second day of the Pirate Bay trial. Due to serious shortcomings in the prosecution evidence, around 50% of the charges in the case are going to have to be withdrawn. The defense describes it as a ’sensation’, seeing half of the charges being dropped on the second day.

What has been shown in court today is that the prosecutor cannot prove that the .torrent files he is using as evidence actually used The Pirate Bay’s tracker. Many of the screenshots being used clearly state there is no connection to the tracker. Additionally, prosecutor Håkan Roswall didn’t adequately explain the function of DHT which allows for so called “trackerless” torrents.

The flaw in the evidence was pointed out by Fredrik Neij (TiAMO), who requested to comment on Roswall’s explanation of how BitTorrent actually works. Fredrik said that the prosecution misunderstood the technology, and told the court that the evidence doesn’t show that the Pirate Bay’s trackers are used.

This has resulted in prosecutor Håkan Roswall having to drop all charges relating to “assisting copyright infringement”, so the remaining charges are simply ‘assisting making available’. “Everything related to reproduction will be removed from the claim,” he said.

The defense was happy to see that already half of the charges were dropped during the morning session of the second day. “This is a sensation. It is very rare to win half the target in just one and a half days and it is clear that the prosecutor took strong note of what we said yesterday,” said defense lawyer Per E Samuelson.

Peter Althin, representing Peter Sunde said, “It is clear that this is an advantage for the accused.”

“EPIC WINNING LOL,” Peter himself later commented on Twitter.

IFPI was quick to release a statement where they try to spin the dropped charges into something good. “It’s a largely technical issue that changes nothing in terms of our compensation claims and has no bearing whatsoever on the main case against The Pirate Bay. In fact it simplifies the prosecutor’s case by allowing him to focus on the main issue, which is the making available of copyrighted works,” IFPI’s legal counsel said.

During the remainder of the morning session it was mostly prosecutor Håkan Roswall talking. Among other things he explained in detail how email works (made no mistakes there). Several details on the hardware that was taken during the raid in 2006 were discussed, as well as invoices and email conversations about server costs.

After the lunch break, around 1:30pm the court decided to end the day early. Tomorrow morning the prosecution will continue to build (or break) their case and on Thursday the defense will have its say.

This is a breaking and developing story, check back here for updates….