P2P uploader jailed

A HONG KONG Court of Appeal has upheld the landmark conviction of P2P uploader Chan Nai-ming.

The case is believed to be the first criminal conviction of a P2P uploader. He will be jailed for three months.

According to the Hong Kong Standard, Chan, 39, was known online by the handle "Big Crook", plans to make another Appeal.

He was arrested last year for using BitTorrent to upload Miss Congeniality, Red Planet and Daredevil. He advertised the movies on an online chatroom.

The original case ruled that there was not much of a difference between Chan's uploading the movies and someone manufacturing and distributing illegal DVDs.

Chan's case was that he had never actively distributed any copies of the movies online, he had just made them available for others.

Both courts rejected this argument.

The judges also rejected Chan's contention the sentence of three months was too tough since he did not profit from the file sharing.

More here. µ