We’re never going to condone piracy of any sort (although we really are a bit miffed hearing how good Westworld apparently is…), but it’s hard not to wince at the harsh example made of a man who was just sentenced to a year in prison for music piracy in the U.K.
As reported by Billboard, 39-year-old Everton man Wayne Evans has been handed a 12-month sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of distributing material infringing copyright, and one count of possession of articles used in the fraud, i.e. computers and other equipment.
The plea comes a month after his home was raided and various computers were seized, following an investigation run by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit and PRS for Music, a collecting society.
His operation involved uploading bundles of top 40 tracks, and directing users to the torrents through a handful of external sites such as deejayportal.com. His specialty, it seems, was uploading versions of the hits with vocals removed, then slipped into sets by DJs across the world.
While the sentence is heavy, so are the numbers involved, as the packets were believed to have been downloaded 524,000 times, and the vocal-less tracks 136,000 times – a calculated loss to the collection agency of 1.3 million USD in a single year.
Evans’ lawyer argued that he wasn’t in this to make money, and that the losses were “difficult to quantify in this case, because not every illegal download leads to the loss of a legitimate sale.”
It seems, however, that the prosecution was keen to make an example of Evans, with lead Detective Steven Kettle suggesting that the sentence would “suggest to others that illegally distributing music is not without its consequences.”
“We hope that today’s sentencing sends a message to all those involved in this type of criminal activity, that consequences will follow,” added PRS head of litigation Simon Bourn.
To add insult to injury, Evans’ arrest was filmed, as police were joined by a TV crew making a documentary on counterfeiting – probably the least of concerns for the man who’s become the latest very public example made in the ongoing battle against piracy.
