IMAGINE BITTORRENT GROUP SYSOP SPEAKS OUT FROM PRISON

Phones, Internet, Computers and such.
Milord
Expatriate
Posts: 1255
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 6:14 am
Reputation: 3
Location: Soon, Soon There
Canada

IMAGINE BITTORRENT GROUP SYSOP SPEAKS OUT FROM PRISON

Post by Milord »

Two years ago Gregory Cherwonik was sent to prison for his role as sysop of the famous movie piracy group IMAGiNE. After having served more than half of his sentence he now publishes an open letter on TorrentFreak which contains heavy criticism of the MPAA and Department of Justice, among others.

A LETTER FROM PRISON – BY GREGORY CHERWONIK

This is the fourth time writing this, trying to get it to sound good to me. It’s hard to complain without sounding whiny.

Anyways. I’m past the halfway point of my sentence. 21 of 34 months paid in my debt to the MPAA. Usually when you’re sentenced to prison you’re sent for crimes against society or the government. Unfortunately it no longer works that way in the United States of America.

The IMAGiNE group provided society a service, so I owe it no debt. We gave those that couldn’t afford or have access to first run movies access to them. The poor, the service men and women, those that didn’t want to get their wallets raped to see for the most part poor quality movies. Seems only half (if even) of the movies produced these days are worth seeing.

We didn’t do it for money or fame, we did it because the government and the corporations gave us the tools. The government with the “Disabilities Act” where all theaters had to have a secondary audio signal for those with hearing disabilities. The Corporations by providing higher and higher quality video cameras WITH 24fps speeds. It’s like they wanted us to pirate movies. There was never any expectation of cash for this service. The fact of the matter is we voted on whether we should make money from it… it was voted down.

But what we did get out of this was a government that would lie and cheat to achieve its end result, a government that feels it can do what it wants to whoever it wants, anytime it wants, no matter where in the world they live. A government that no longer takes the people’s interest to mind when it makes laws. Now it’s a matter of who’ll pad their pockets the most. In my opinion we as a country took a nose dive when we started treating corporations as people.

While I was first getting into torrenting long before IMAGiNE was even thought of, I read the law. As I understood it, as long as there was no “Financial Gain” it was a misdemeanor. I see the newer DVDs new state that whether there’s Monetary Gain or not. Did they amend the law, or is it that the MPAA feels it can also do as it pleases?

Did the lMAGiNE case have something to do with this? I’m sure the prosecutors were fit to be tied when we stated we never received or expect any monetary gain from our endeavors. In fact it problem screwed them when they found out we actually paid money to do what we did. I guess not many people do things for a simple “Thank You” any more.

But the reason I myself am in prison is because my “Financial Gain” was invented. When the US attornies couldn’t prove any monetary gain they decided to lie. They said my gain was the “THOUSANDS” of DVDs I downloaded. If you added up all the VCDs, SVCDs, Xvid, and DVDs I’ve download over the 10 years I’m sure you’d struggle to make 1,500 titles. If in fact I downloaded “THOUSANDS” over the last three years I’m sure my ISP would have shutoff my service.

I currently have a library of over 400 bought and paid for titles; if the movie is good I buy it. You still can’t replicate the DTS sound, besides I am aware that if you don’t support those that make good, quality movies the industry will die. Many of the confiscated DVDs they took from me were nothing more than copies of my library.

If it wasn’t for this made up “Financial Gain”, [co-defendants] Willie, Sean and myself would have only been charged with misdemeanors. Of course that wouldn’t look good in the press or on resumes. It wouldn’t send the right message. So let’s lie and make things look a lot worse, show everyone how terrible those “PIRATES” are.

Please, do they really think the public bought that crap? 1 in 3 people aged 13 – 50 have downloaded or purchased bootleg or counterfeit goods. Yes we broke the law, I never said we didn’t. But we didn’t break the law we were charged with, and we sure as hell didn’t deserve the stiff sentences handed down.

So here I sit waiting for my release date. Then I can get back to doing what I do best… care for my family. Providing for them, working, paying taxes, volunteering my time and money for and in the community. Just as I was doing before I was sent away to waste my time and the government’s money. Let me tell you, from what I’ve seen the government is great at wasting money. It’s no wonder the MPAA has to “CONTRIBUTE” millions to the Dept of Justice, to Homeland Security, to the people who are supposed to be representing us, the citizens of this land.

Do you see the pattern here? Let me show you how I see it. The MPAA pays the Senators and Representatives to pass its laws via campaign “Contributions”(aka bribes, just about confirmed from Chris Dodd’s own mouth). They then contribute to Homeland Security to police these bought and paid for laws. Then to top it all off they contribute to the Justice Dept to enforce them. You would think there would be a conflict of interest there somewhere. Oh I forgot, we’re talking about people who the law doesn’t apply to.

But as we say here, it is what it is. So I’ll finish my time out, go back to my family, my job, my life with a felony conviction hanging over me. At least I’m old and only have to carry it a short time. The three years the MPAA took from me is actually a very high percentage of the time I had remaining in my life.

It would have been, except I did get some positive things out of this whole debacle. I came in weighing 300lbs, 20 months later from the lack of any stress, crappy meals and being so bored, all I do is walk and run, and I’ve managed to get my weight down to 180lbs. My blood pressure is good, as is my sugar. You might say I’ve lost three years but gained 10 back.

I’ve found out my wife of 26 years is my one, my only. My soul mate. That’s a wonderful feeling to have, to know you are loved as much as you love. I’ve found out that blood is definitely thicker, family is there for you always, but then I’ve also found out that friendship isn’t.

I’ve often wondered if piracy actually hurt or helped the industry. I really wish an independent source would release a study on it. On one hand it might take away from the ticket and DVD sales. But on the other hand would these people actually have gone to the theaters or bought the DVD? What l do know is that if l watched a pirated movie and it happened to be good, I would tell people just that. The movie was good. I’m sure others do the same.

Does this increase sales? Lets take the movie “The Hurt Locker“, it had a dismal showing at the theaters. It won an Oscar if I’m not mistaken, which doesn’t make it a good movie. But it also topped the lists for downloads at the time, and I’m sure the DVD sales went very well. Were those DVD sales because of the awards? Or were they because of word of mouth? I think it would be interesting to see the results of a good study. Then and only then can we know if we are criminals or not.

Oh BTW would I do it again if I had to do over????? You bet your ass, but I would do it differently. I told the group from the very start that a website [Unleashthe.net] would be the biggest security threat to the group. Obviously I was right.

http://torrentfreak.com/imagine-bittorr ... on-141005/
.............................................................................................................................

Again, the World Wide Corrupt US corporations are running the world via "legal" manipulation [bribery] of laws in the USA, UK, CAN, AUS, NZ, Europe, etc.

First, it was War on Communism [cover for MIC]; then Drugs, Immigration, Oil; Now, Press and Free Speech.

Terrorism is the latest catch all, disagree with our thought/economic police [Corporations], and you're Busted or Bombed. :evil:
Soi Dog
Expatriate
Posts: 2236
Joined: Fri May 16, 2014 8:53 am
Reputation: 5

Re: IMAGINE BITTORRENT GROUP SYSOP SPEAKS OUT FROM PRISON

Post by Soi Dog »

Milord wrote:It’s like they wanted us to pirate movies.
One pathetic justification after another. "He left his wallet with cash inside it right out in the open on a table in his home....it's like he wanted me to break in and steal it!"
Milord
Expatriate
Posts: 1255
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 6:14 am
Reputation: 3
Location: Soon, Soon There
Canada

Re: IMAGINE BITTORRENT GROUP SYSOP SPEAKS OUT FROM PRISON

Post by Milord »

Soi Dog wrote:
Milord wrote:It’s like they wanted us to pirate movies.
One pathetic justification after another. "He left his wallet with cash inside it right out in the open on a table in his home....it's like he wanted me to break in and steal it!"
False Quotes.

You're nuts, or sarcastic, or very funny, or impaired.

You just don't get it. :facepalm:
wackyjacky
Expatriate
Posts: 1640
Joined: Fri Jun 27, 2014 2:40 pm
Reputation: 1

Re: IMAGINE BITTORRENT GROUP SYSOP SPEAKS OUT FROM PRISON

Post by wackyjacky »

I pirate stuff now & in my mind it's illegal, so I'm a hypocrite. It isn't like I have many other options here though. I stopped doing it in the States 12 years ago due to the possible consequences. The US defends it's intellectual property - duh. Why would say Warner Bros may a $120,000,000 movie if they can't make any $ off of it ? Why would Phizer spend billions on R & D & testing for a new drug ? I find most of his excuses pretty lame. Maybe he should have only been charged with a misdemeanor, but he should consider himself lucky losing 120 lbs. Prison may have actually saved the former fat boy's life.
UKJ
Expatriate
Posts: 849
Joined: Thu May 29, 2014 4:37 am
Reputation: 0

Re: IMAGINE BITTORRENT GROUP SYSOP SPEAKS OUT FROM PRISON

Post by UKJ »

Milord wrote:
The IMAGiNE group provided society a service, so I owe it no debt. We gave those that couldn’t afford or have access to first run movies access to them. The poor, the service men and women, those that didn’t want to get their wallets raped to see for the most part poor quality movies. Seems only half (if even) of the movies produced these days are worth seeing.
That's the way I see it. :thumb: Governments shouldn't be policing the pirating of media. I liked that about Thailand. Entire floors of shopping centres where ordinary people could buy pirated media at fair prices they can afford.
Drifter
Expatriate
Posts: 434
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2014 2:21 pm
Reputation: 0

Re: IMAGINE BITTORRENT GROUP SYSOP SPEAKS OUT FROM PRISON

Post by Drifter »

it's worrying that almost two years in prison are still not enough for him to understand he broke the laws and now he's paying the price for it, no matter if he didn't profited too much from his torrents or if it was just for fun, and we can see the exact same attitude in the Pirate Bay guys who are now behind bars.

this is typical of the actual crowd of "social justice warriors", you can bet that once he's back home he'll start an NGO or something and live the rest of his life as a "professional victim", maybe writing a book and filming a movie where he points his finger at the evil hollywood corporations, as if watching a movie for free or stealing the last version of photoshop was a god given right.
UKJ
Expatriate
Posts: 849
Joined: Thu May 29, 2014 4:37 am
Reputation: 0

Re: IMAGINE BITTORRENT GROUP SYSOP SPEAKS OUT FROM PRISON

Post by UKJ »

Drifter wrote:it's worrying that almost two years in prison are still not enough for him to understand he broke the laws
You can't just blindly accept laws that are wrong! The laws in question, benefit a limited few, while supporting their overcharging of the masses. There's no way you adhere to every law!
User avatar
Digg3r
Expatriate
Posts: 1642
Joined: Wed May 14, 2014 8:55 pm
Reputation: 57
Korea North

Re: IMAGINE BITTORRENT GROUP SYSOP SPEAKS OUT FROM PRISON

Post by Digg3r »

I used to torrent a lot because there was no reasonable and fair business model that was as convenient.

Things have changed though. With the few video on demand services that I subscribe too I get more than enough content to watch legally at a very fair price.
Drifter
Expatriate
Posts: 434
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2014 2:21 pm
Reputation: 0

Re: IMAGINE BITTORRENT GROUP SYSOP SPEAKS OUT FROM PRISON

Post by Drifter »

Digg3r wrote:I used to torrent a lot because there was no reasonable and fair business model that was as convenient.

Things have changed though. With the few video on demand services that I subscribe too I get more than enough content to watch legally at a very fair price.
good, but the problem is still YOU.

if you can't afford to legally buying a digital product then you must forget about it and move on with your life.

no money no honey.
UKJ
Expatriate
Posts: 849
Joined: Thu May 29, 2014 4:37 am
Reputation: 0

Re: IMAGINE BITTORRENT GROUP SYSOP SPEAKS OUT FROM PRISON

Post by UKJ »

Drifter wrote:
Digg3r wrote:I used to torrent a lot because there was no reasonable and fair business model that was as convenient.

Things have changed though. With the few video on demand services that I subscribe too I get more than enough content to watch legally at a very fair price.
good, but the problem is still YOU.

if you can't afford to legally buying a digital product then you must forget about it and move on with your life.

no money no honey.
You are not brainwashed by big companies or a brainwashable type! You are doing that devils advocate thang :evil: :D
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 70 guests