Quakester2000 used our news submit to tell us
that the music industry this week accused Australia's legal system of being
too lenient. The music industry believes that the three defendants
in Australia's first criminal Internet piracy case will receive sentences
that are too low for the believed US$ 41 million their actions cost the
industry:
organisation claims the three struck a deal to lower their sentence if they agreed to plea guilty. It alleges that Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) officials sought such a plea bargain because its case was deficient. "The case was watered down to nothing," said MIPI spokesman Michael Speck. "We see this as a sophisticated international massive agreement to rip off copyright - the DPP's version of it is a lowly street-level offence." He added: "These guys will be getting away with the biggest rip-off of copy in Australian history, and they will probably get away with a slap on the wrist." MIPI wants the New South Wales court to force the students to pay the "hundreds of thousands of dollars" it claims to have spent during a three-month investigation of the three students' activities. It also wants the trio's computer equipment to be forfeit, as specified under Australia's federal Copyright Act. |
MIPI applied to
the court this week to be heard on behalf of the music industry but
magistrate John Andrews turned the
application down, claiming that it was "totally inappropriate for an
organisation such as MIPI to have a say in sentencing since they are not a
disinterested party to the case".
Source: The Register
