A Czech man convicted of software piracy has received an unconventional sentence – instead of facing hefty fines from the firms whose software he pirated, he was offered the chance to make an anti-piracy film. The catch? To avoid any financial penalty, the film had to produce more than 200,000 views.
The man, known only as Jakub F, came to the out-of-court settlement with a group of firms whose software he pirated after being convicted by a Czech court, reports the BBC.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The companies, which included Microsoft, HBO Europe, Sony Music and Twentieth Century Fox, estimated that their financial losses amounted to hundreds of thousands of pounds, but also realised that Jakub had insufficient funds to fully repay them. Instead, BSA, the alliance representing the complainants, said they would be satisfied with a small payment and Jakub's co-operation in the production of an anti-piracy video.
The video The Story of My Piracy, available here, had to be seen by at least 200,000 people or a huge fine would be enforced. The video was posted on a dedicated site mojepiratstvi.cz, uploaded to YouTube and also embedded on many other sites.
As Engadget pointed out, "unless you have a grasp of Czech, you probably won't understand most of it" but the film gives viewers a chance to play a part in deciding the pirate's fate.
In the professional-looking video which features a doom-laden soundtrack, Jakub talks about the fun he had sharing content on warez forums, but explains how it all backfired when copyright holders identified him and demanded the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of pounds in damages, which he could never pay.
Torrent Freak, the digital web blog, has helpfully provided a translation of Jakub's confession in which he says: "I thought that I wasn't doing anything wrong. I thought that it didn't hurt the big companies. I didn't even do it for the money, I did it for fun."
Jakub adds: "I felt in the warez community that I meant something. I was convinced that I was too small a fish for someone to get to me. But eventually, they got me. Even for me, the investigators came to work."
Responses to the video have been mixed, reports The Guardian. Some watched the video in solidarity with Jakub. "Only came here to support a pirate. Have a free view on me," wrote one viewer. "Ditto. Clicked, switched tabs. This punishment is bullshit," explained another.
Others felt the video would encourage revenge pirating, while some even wondered if it was a viral ad for the software alliance BSA. BSA has responded that the sentence and the film are very real.
At the time of writing, Jakub's video has been watched over 400,000 times, which should get him off the hook with his complainants. Whether it deters other pirates, or encourages them, remains to be seen.
-
What to know before turning to AI for financial advicethe explainer It can help you crunch the numbers — but it might also pocket your data
-
Book reviews: 'The Headache: The Science of a Most Confounding Affliction—and a Search for Relief' and 'Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run'Feature The search for a headache cure and revisiting Springsteen's 'Born to Run' album on its 50th anniversary
-
Keith McNally' 6 favorite books that have ambitious charactersFeature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
-
How cybercriminals are hacking into the heart of the US economySpeed Read Ransomware attacks have become a global epidemic, with more than $18.6bn paid in ransoms in 2020
-
Language-learning apps speak the right lingo for UK subscribersSpeed Read Locked-down Brits turn to online lessons as a new hobby and way to upskill
-
Brexit-hobbled Britain ‘still tech powerhouse of Europe’Speed Read New research shows that UK start-ups have won more funding than France and Germany combined over past year
-
Playing Cupid during Covid: Tinder reveals Britain’s top chat-up lines of the yearSpeed Read Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Dominic Cummings among most talked-about celebs on the dating app
-
Brits sending one less email a day would cut carbon emissions by 16,000 tonnesSpeed Read UK research suggests unnecessary online chatter increases climate change
-
Reach for the Moon: Nokia and Nasa to build 4G lunar networkSpeed Read Deal is part of the US space agency’s plan to establish human settlements on the lunar surface
-
iPhone 12 launch: what we learned from the Apple ‘Hi, Speed’ eventSpeed Read Tech giant unveils new 5G smartphone line-up
-
Russian agency behind US election meddling ‘created fake left-wing news site’Speed Read Facebook says real reporters were hired by fake editors to write about US corruption
