Woman fined £16,000 for illegal download - Dream Pinball 3D

Woman fined £16,000 for illegal download

A woman has been ordered to pay more than £16,000 for illegally downloading a computer game over the internet in one of the first indications that games manufacturers are likely to take the same aggressive stance as music and film companies in pursuing alleged copyright violations.

The payout follows similarly large awards against individuals who have downloaded software, songs and movies via peer-to-peer networking websites, and has been granted despite government-backed attempts to reach a deal between computer users and entertainment companies.

The Patents County Court in London ordered the woman, who has not been named, to pay damages of £6086.56 and costs and disbursements of £10,000 to Topware Interactive, owner of the computer game Dream Pinball 3D, London law firm Davenport Lyons said.
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The firm has launched civil proceedings against 100 people suspected of illegally uploading copyrighted works on behalf of Topware Interactive.

The case is focusing on peer-to-peer networks, which give subscribers direct access to each other's computers, allowing people to download files without paying fees to the copyright owner.

Downloading films and music has grown massively on the back of the internet revolution that has swept the UK, with some six million people thought to engage in illegal file-sharing each year. The increase in broadband take-up and internet speed has only exacerbated the problem.

Concern over the practice led to an agreement last month between six of the UK's biggest internet service providers, the music industry body BPI, and the Motion Picture Association to reduce illegal filesharing within three years.

The BPI has pursued a number of cases against people for illegally downloading music. In 2006, two men were ordered to pay costs and damages, in one of the cases running to more than £18,000. Similar actions have provoked a backlash in the US, where some parents have been forced into massive damages payments because of the downloading activity of their children.

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2428217.0.Woman_fined_16_000_for_illegal_download.php

Hmm. Will these sort of stories stop people file-sharing? That's a serious amount of money right there.

Nova wrote:Hmm. Will these sort of stories stop people file-sharing? That's a serious amount of money right there.

No, because most people assume they will never be caught, which they won't.

Is that simply for downloading? Or is that uploading and then downloading? Article doesn't make it clear, I'm guessing it's for initially uploading it as well.

Quite frankly, if you take the risk, then you need to be prepared for he consequences. She commited a criminal act and got caught. That said, £16k for a pin ball game seems a little steep.

No way, would you be charged 16 grand for simply downloading a pinball game. It'd be akin to being charged 16 grand for shoplifting a CD.

From what I get from the article, it was £10k for the game and the rest was court costs.

Illegal Downloading is on a par with speeding. Everyone does it, but very few people (relatively speaking) actually get caught.

Okay, so on occasion you hear about the guy that did 180mph in his new Lambo but these are extreme cases. Piracy on a small scale is almost impossible to prosecute because the internet is just so vast - and there are just so many people doing it.

Commander Jameson wrote:From what I get from the article, it was £10k for the game and the rest was court costs.

This is the pertinent bit;

"The firm has launched civil proceedings against 100 people suspected of illegally uploading copyrighted works on behalf of Topware Interactive."

My guess is, she was uploading. But the article has been written in such a way, as to gooseberry fool up any prospective downloader.

:lol:

Should have tilted.

The Herald, in it's reporting stylee, wrote:Downloading films and music has grown massively on the back of the internet revolution that has swept the UK, with some six million people thought to engage in illegal file-sharing each year. The increase in broadband take-up and internet speed has only exacerbated the problem.

Well of course it has - what else are people going to regularly use a 20MB Broadband connection for? Is this really a surprise?

"Jeez, now we've enabled people to download huge files really quickly, they're using it to download music and video files really quickly! And they're choosing the free option over the one that's overpriced for a mere downloadable file! Shock!!"

[/sarky northerner mode]

So this is for uploading? Is it easier to trace than downloading?

I think Dream Pinball was gooseberry fool anyway.

Computer pinball is up there in the 'pointless things to emulate instead of actively doing' league with computer darts.

strawberry float

£16k! You would be far better off shoplifting the game as you would probably only get a caution if you get caught (assuming your criminal record is clean).

Ah that's nothing, only a pound a week for 307 years

hmm £80 fine of stealing the actual copy of the game, or £16k for downloading & uploading the digital copy of the game.

a big difference.

Cyburn2 wrote:hmm £80 fine of stealing the actual copy of the game, or £16k for downloading & uploading the digital copy of the game.

a big difference.

Well, it looks like the government is trying to send a message out to the rest, although whether anyone will pay attention to it, I don't know.

I imagine she was some super hot glamour model. 16k is only a drop in the ocean from what she gets from her international porn career.

Nova wrote:So this is for uploading? Is it easier to trace than downloading?

There's a log for anything you do, upload/download, it's all recorded.

Woman fined £16,000 for illegal download - Dream Pinball 3D

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