Don’t pirate music/movies! You might be forced to use Windows if you do…

I read this article today where it is said that the administrators of EliteTorrents have lost the battle against the MPAA. The guy got a 10 year sentence as he did not plead guilty and decided to fight. Now a jury decided he’s gotta go away for a while… Shame!

Two of his colleagues did plead guilty and both were given a fine of $3000 and a five month prison sentence. Heavy, but not as heavy as this:

“I had a meeting with my probation officer today and he told me that he has to install monitoring software onto my PC. No big deal to me; that is part of my sentence,” he wrote on his Lost and Alone blog. “However, their software doesn’t support GNU/Linux (which is what I use). So, he told me that if I want to use a computer, I would have to use an OS that the software can be installed on.” The monitoring software in question is only available for Microsoft Windows. Neither Linux nor a Macintosh running OS X would be an acceptable platform.

SHIT!!! That’s just plain cruel and inhumane punishment! That is more like a death sentence to a Linux user. Heavy… Don’t pirate software or you’ll be FORCED to use Windows. How much does THAT suck?!

Here is the full story.

4 Comments to "Don’t pirate music/movies! You might be forced to use Windows if you do…"

• Chris M said: On 07/01/2008 at 6:50 pm

  Hehe, good find Stii!

• angel said: On 07/03/2008 at 9:01 pm

  lol! another nail in the pirates coffin!

• Richard Catto said: On 07/04/2008 at 5:16 am

  Tell that to Matt Mullenweg - he still uses Windows on his laptop!

  As for me, much as I love Linux as a hosting platform, how can anyone expect me to forego playing Microsoft Age of Empires (I, II & III) which need a Windows platform!!??

  That would be a cruel and unusual punishment.

  Btw, I am firmly on the side of The Pirates (of the Caribbean, of course).

  You may get some amusement out of this page:
  http://thepiratebay.org/legal

  They’re a bunch of Swedes hosting torrents, which is apparently totally legal in Sweden.

  Gotta love those Swedes.

• Charl van Niekerk said: On 07/04/2008 at 12:17 pm

  This is basically like banning the guy from ever using another computer in his life (at least, painlessly and productively). Absolutely insane, indeed. Why can’t they just install an intelligent firewall router? How do they think their app can’t be hacked? Just comes to show that they have no clue about these things.

Spit it out!

Filed in: Linux by: Stii