Two More Guilty Pleas Over NinjaVideo

from the close-it-out dept

Thu, Oct 27th 2011 1:38am — Mike Masnick

This should come as absolutely no surprise (and, indeed, we predicted it), but following the guilty pleas of two of the admins for Ninjavideo, the two remaining Americans, who were indicted, have now accepted plea bargains as well. Compared to the first two, these two were small fry, and they must have realized that the government using the two others against them would leave them in serious trouble. Now all that's left is to see what kind of punishment the judge doles out. It would be interesting to see what kind of deal the government promised... and compare it to what the judge eventually does, but it seems like the legal fighting here is just about over. There was one more person indicted, but he's apparently in Greece, and the US government hasn't been able to find him yet.

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Filed Under: copyright, lawsuits
Companies: ninjavideo

19 Comments

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oldmanonabusa, 27 Oct 2011 @ 3:53am

Can't find them because....
they're ninjas.
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- abc gum, 27 Oct 2011 @ 5:28am
  
  Re: Can't find them because....
  Pirates are way cooler than ninjas
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- Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2011 @ 5:40am
  
  Re: Can't find them because....
  Except they WERE found so they must be pretty bad ninjas.
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  - The eejit (profile), 27 Oct 2011 @ 6:52am
    
    Re: Re: Can't find them because....
    They're obviously the Konohamaru to TPB's Naruto.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2011 @ 8:47am
    
    Re: Re: Can't find them because....
    They missed the stealth class.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2011 @ 6:16pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Can't find them because....
      Yes. The stealth class taught by the patent trolls. Their organization should have been a shell company, with the official company office being a vacant room, just like the ones in Marshall, Texas. The controller of the said shell company should have been another shell company in a foreign tax-haven jurisdiction, which has strong privacy laws and police who are mysteriously unwilling to act.
      
      Then the US shell company could cheerfully conduct business, without suffering the slightest danger to any of the ultimate owners. Nobody would know who they are. When the cops come knocking, all they find is the vacant room.
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      - Aerilus, 27 Oct 2011 @ 9:23pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Can't find them because....
        Otherwise known as piratebay
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2011 @ 5:54am

Plea bargains usually include an agreement on sentence, so the mystery of "what they will get" is pretty small, at least for them.

"phara" has already said she knows she is going to fail. With the potential being up to five years, don't be shocked if they get very close to half of that.
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- Dementia (profile), 27 Oct 2011 @ 6:23am
  
  Re:
  True, the plea bargains generally have an agreement as to the sentence, that doesn't not mean the judge has to follow through with the deal. It just means that's the sentence the prosecution will request.
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BentFranklin (profile), 27 Oct 2011 @ 6:19am

One assumes the full force and weight of US anti-terrorist organizations will be brought to bring that evil Greek destroyer of American IP to justice. Power Rangers unite!
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BentFranklin (profile), 27 Oct 2011 @ 6:21am

One assumes the full force and weight of US anti-terrorist organizations will be brought to bring that evil Greek destroyer of American IP to justice. Power Rangers unite!
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out_of_the_blue, 27 Oct 2011 @ 6:49am

Shameless self-promoting over trivial prediction, Mike.
"(and, indeed, we predicted it)" -- It's a not-too-subtle way to build up his credibility, see?* Who but Mike could have predicted that defendants would take a plea deal? Only happens in vast majority of cases!

But at least he's quit contradicting statements made in court by the principals:
"We're [Mike Masnick] skeptical that the site ever made anywhere close to $500,000 or that Beshara made $200,000. So notice that the $200k number is mentioned in how much she made, but no amount is stated in how much the government took from her:

Beshara admitted that she and her co-conspirators collected more than $500,000 in overall proceeds during the website�s two-and-a-half years of operation, with Beshara personally receiving more than $200,000."

As if he had ANY basis to refute defendant statements! That was of course an attempt to bolster his position that no one ever profits from infringing.

[* Yes, I use it now and then, in mockery.]
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Pixelation, 27 Oct 2011 @ 7:49am

It was piracy!
"There was one more person indicted, but he's apparently in Greece"

Now the entertainment industry will use this to show how he destroyed the Greek economy. See, it was piracy!
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2011 @ 8:33am

Sorry about your pirate friends, Pirate Mike. I hope they know not to bend over in the showers.
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- Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2011 @ 8:49am
  
  Re:
  You talk from experience of course :)
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Rekrul, 27 Oct 2011 @ 11:59am

Gee, I feel so much safer knowing that my tax dollars are being used to go after people who were supposedly hurting the profit margin of multi-billion corporations.
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- Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2011 @ 12:02pm
  
  Re:
  You forgot to mention "and were helping to put your friends out of jobs, close down busineses, and generally hurt the economy".
  
  Oh look, you don't live in a bubble. what a shock.
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  - Killercool (profile), 27 Oct 2011 @ 1:52pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Oh man, I didn't know the movie industry was in so much trouble. Maybe they could save a few hundred million dollars a year by not lobbying... Y'know, anything that can help.
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  - Rekrul, 27 Oct 2011 @ 11:54pm
    
    Re: Re:
    You forgot to mention "and were helping to put your friends out of jobs, close down busineses, and generally hurt the economy".
    
    You know, I always love the part about how piracy hurts the economy. What do you think pirates do with all the money they don't spend on copyrighted content, burn it?
    
    Is there some special class of money that is specifically earmarked for the entertainment industry, and if it's not spent on copyrighted content, it just disappears?
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