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French court gives prison time to both operator and users of OMGTorrent
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 16 September 2016
The former operator of French-based torrent site OMGTorrent has been jailed for a year for running the piracy service, and also faces a five million euro fine. Meanwhile a moderator on the torrent site got a four month suspended sentence, and four prolific users of the service each face a month in jail and substantial damages payments.
In the early days of the battle against online piracy, most of the attacks against file-sharing set ups were civil lawsuits, though in more recent times there have been some criminal actions against those running file-sharing sites. The legal basis for such prosecutions varies from country to country, though prosecutors often need to show that those running online piracy platforms are profiting from the venture in order to secure a conviction and a custodial sentence.
On the copyright owners’ part, there is a hope that some high profile convictions of those running piracy sites will be a deterrent for others operating file-sharing platforms. The threat of mega-bucks damages in civil cases was also meant to be a deterrent of course, though often, if you haven’t really got any money, the thought of being ordered to pay millions to rights owners by the courts just seems a bit comical. Prison time, however, might make people think differently.
Perhaps the stand out element of the OMGTorrent case is the fact that four users of the site have also received one month sentences, such actions usually targeting those who actually run file-sharing services, or who provide a steady stream of uploads. It seems police were able to identify four particularly prolific downloaders who used OMGTorrent after seizing servers from its operator last year.
Following a hearing back in March, the six accused were sentenced at the Criminal Court Of Chalons-en-Champagne this week. The sentences were arguably a win for the anti-piracy group that initiated the investigation into the piracy site, the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance. Though whether the sentences will actually prove to be a deterrent for others – including those who set up a new file-sharing site under the OMGTorrent name – well, that’s more debatable.
