Owner of Stargate SG1 fan site federally charged with copyright infringement

[cka]

Saw this up on SA:

http://www.sg1archive.com/nightmare.shtml

His online friendship with other Stargate fans across the globe was portrayed as an international conspiracy against the MPAA. And perhaps most disturbing of all, it was later revealed that the FBI invoked a provision of the USA Patriot Act to obtain financial records from his ISP. The FBI's abuse of its powers did not stop there. When they seized Adam's computer equipment, he was given written documentation stating that it would be returned within 60 days. The equipment that they did return did not arrive until more than 8 months later, and only then after much prodding from his lawyer. Much of it was damaged beyond repair - one laptop had a shattered LCD screen, an empty tape backup drive was ripped apart for no apparent reason, his fiancee's iBook was badly damaged when it was pried apart with a screwdriver. The FBI's computer crimes staff is either incompetent (at least when it comes to Macintosh computer equipment) or else they just don't give a damn.

That's pretty goddamn ridiculous.

[Diff-chan]

Shows you just how close the MPAA is to achieving its goal of... total domination, I guess?

[AaronChance]

This is nothing new. The FBI did this a while back to Steve Jackson games just because they made a cardgame named Hacker. Took all their PCs and trashed them for no reason, etc. It's just gotten even stupider.

[Timber]

As of this writing, direct links from SG1Archive.com to Amazon.com have resulted in the sale of over $100,000 worth of DVDs. Many more DVDs have been sold to international fans of the show through sites like Blackstar.co.uk. Upon hearing this news, Stargate executive producer Brad Wright called the site "cool" - which Adam took as an endorsement of his work.

So wrong.

And I'd like to point out that SG1Archive.com is what really got me into the show. When I came across the site they were hosting really small files of each ep and I got to fill in the gaps of what I'd already seen in syndication. Which resulted in me really digging the show and now owning the first six seasons on DVD.

[Fe 26]

Someone should really bring these dirty bastards down. You just don't treat your fellow man like this.

[YellerDog]

If Stargate fandom is allowed to continue, the terrorists have already won.

[Thief Silver]

Holy crap it's YellerDog I haven't seen you post in ages!!

[YellerDog]

Howdy! Thought I should get back into it. Going to get to work on a new user-pic today.

--

Back on topic, so the Patriot Act turns out to be exactly what everybody thought it would be. How long until we get people with sense to repeal this thing? Ten years?

[Mman]

I think we need to start at the immediate and find some way to take down the MPAA. There has to be something we can do. Petition, picket, march, fire bomb? Anything.

[Diff-chan]

Donate to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Back on topic, so the Patriot Act turns out to be exactly what everybody thought it would be.

While the FBI did use the Patriot Act here, I would say that the DMCA probably gave MGM the power to do this, not the Patriot Act.