Scott McCausland, ex-administrator of the Elite Torrents Bit Torrent tracker, pleaded guilty to two charges - ‘conspiracy to commit copyright infringement' and ‘criminal copyright infringement'. He was sentenced to five months in jail and five months home confinement.

However, the jail sentence was a walk in the park when it comes to his probation order which seems designed to humiliate him.

The probation service have ordered that his Internet connection is monitored by the US Government to make sure he doesn't do any more pirating.

Unfortunately the Government does not have any monitoring software which is not Windows based. So, McCausland is forced to lose all his Linux street cred and become an enthusiastic Vole supporter.

His crime was uploading a copy of ‘Star Wars: Episode III' onto the internet hours before the theatrical release, so all this seems a bit steep.

McCausland has contacted his brief about the cruel and unusual punishment. He said he didn't mind being monitored, but changing to Windows means that he has to buy lots of expensive software while he is unemployed.

More here. µ