A game pirate who funded $10,000 for his wife's breast enlargement and his own weight-loss op has been handed a three-year jail sentence following investigation by West Midlands Police and ELSPA.
Dudley-based Raymond Adams, who's said to have "lived in luxury" by selling illegally copied games and DVDs, spent thousands of pounds from his game-copying deeds on weight-loss surgery for himself and breast enlargement for his 33 year-old girlfriend.
What's more, the silly bugger bragged about losing his belly, which the ELSPA press release bravely refers to as his "greedy bulk", as well as his wife's new baps in The Sun. To be fair, he has lost a lot of weight there.
Unfortunately the Old Bill weren't so impressed by Adam's girl's jubblies, and brought his illegal activities to a painful halt when they discovered his fake game stall, called 'Midland Console Modifications', at Wolverhampton racecourse.
On November 21 at Wolverhampton Crown Court Adams was jailed for three years, and his busty girlfriend handed a 12-month sentence, suspended for 18 months.
The two admitted charges relating to the illegal copying and Adams pleaded guilty to 44 counts related to offences under the Trade Marks Acts 1994. The Dudley pirate is reckoned to have made over £180,000 from his counterfeit operation that cost the games, film and music industry an estimated £1million.
Hilariously, Adams was kept on remand until sentencing "at his own request", to prevent him from going out and making further breaches of the Trade Mark Act.
"This is one of the most unusual cases ELSPA has ever been involved with," said ELSPA boss Michael Rawlinson. "The sheer persistence of Adams... selling illegally copied video games, film and music is staggering. So was Adams' own insistence that he be remanded to prevent further illegal activities!"
When asked on how he expected to get away with it he repiled "I didnt i only needed one night"
Hope he gets raped in the showers so he can feel what he did to the industry.
That's a bit harsh, surely. Mind you, the analogy of him being the game industry does have some merit, as he was charging for software, a lot of which wasn't worth the money.
There's of course another method that reduces weight at a fraction of the cost; stop eating pies! And pay for your wife's cosmetic surgery? That's called, get a job!
Does nobody else think he's been a bit hard done by? 3 years in the nick for a crime where nobody got hurt? I think it would have been more appropriate if his assets were seized (perhaps even the girlfriend's boobs) and he was forced to do a few thousand hours' community service, perhaps putting his computer repair skills to good use. I mean, yes, piracy is a bad thing for the industry (and, ultimately, the consumer, us, and as primarily a pc gamer I very much count me in that) but in the scheme of things it's not really THAT bad, is it?
Does nobody else think he's been a bit hard done by? 3 years in the nick for a crime where nobody got hurt? I think it would have been more appropriate if his assets were seized (perhaps even the girlfriend's boobs) and he was forced to do a few thousand hours' community service, perhaps putting his computer repair skills to good use. I mean, yes, piracy is a bad thing for the industry (and, ultimately, the consumer, us, and as primarily a pc gamer I very much count me in that) but in the scheme of things it's not really THAT bad, is it?
Although I hate criminals, I agree. I think there are far better punishments for piracy criminals like fines and large amount of hours of community service. By large though I do mean large-a lot of community service (hundreds of hours of doing something crappy for free) to really deter. Prisons should really be reserved for the violent and those who commit crimes against the general public, especially with the prison overcrowding that seems to get spoke about so much. Fines are always good-something that can actually be paid though, a large amount (maybe over time). I hate it when people are charged with millions and you know they'll never pay it. Might as well be realistic.
As for anyone who wants to see his girlfriend, surely there are enough women on the internet topless that are definitely hot? Having not seen the woman anyone want bets of fake blonde hair and excessive make-up?
Chances are the sentence will be drastically shorter anyway.
Someone did get hurt: the IP holder, the people who would have been involved in making a legitimate sale, and even you the customer. Now were we physically hurt? Not per se but financially and ethically we were. Before I start sounding all high and mighty I'd like to point out that I do think there's more to the whole situation of piracy than just saying, "Company X holds the rights to this IP and can therefore do whatever they want with it". That's not true. There are still guidelines and other laws that in turn dictate what is considered acceptable and what's not though in some cases we're in unchartered territory (ex. DRM). Another perhaps more hard hitting example of piracy would be the shipping lanes around Somalia. Not the same you say? Oh but it is. It is *exactly* the same concept fundamentally speaking except that those pirates are using fast boats and armaments to seize anything from private yachts to a 100 million dollar Saudi oil tanker while the fellow above is using IT media and electronic equipment to seize games, movies, music, what-have-you which in some cases may well have cost millions in the single, double or even triple digits (see the costs of certain movies and nevermind the billions of dollars invested in developing operating systems).
That I personally think the pricing on some of those products are so outrageous that it almost invites people to try and find cheaper alternatives - even if less than legal - since so many daily operations in the Western world are tied to many of these technologies doesn't at present time make it legal. Yes, I have benefitted from other people having downloaded various material in the past and I'm not proud of it. Which is why I've made the conscious decision not to do so anymore except for the instance of games I've legally bought only to be butt raped by DRM/malware (I'm looking at you Crysis! Thanks for damaging the firmware in my now replaced DVD player). That is technically still illegal but I'll be damned if I'm going to let multi-national companies like Sony, EA, Ubisoft, etc. get away scott-free claiming they have no liability and leaving the bill with the individual customer who is easily swamped by the turbulent seas of legalities, red tape, IT savvy (and lack there of), etc.
All that said I do like your alternative suggestion of seizing some of the man's assets (which may happen anyway,) though not the woman's breasts as that would seem particularly petty, hurtful and possibly dangerous as it involves unnecessary surgery. Get the money back from them via regular payments. The community service idea was a particularly nice touch I find. Cheers!
Well, i know the chap, and i really dont think the punishment fits the crime. Sure punish him - but theres violent criminals that get less than that...
Im not condoning (or condeming) what he did - but in a world where a rapist can ruin someones life and be out in roughly the same time im appauled.
they can't even get the bloke's name right. and as for asking to be kept on remand to prevent him committing further copyright crime - what a load of rubbish.
Another perhaps more hard hitting example of piracy would be the shipping lanes around Somalia. Not the same you say? Oh but it is. It is *exactly* the same concept fundamentally speaking except that those pirates are using fast boats and armaments to seize anything from private yachts to a 100 million dollar Saudi oil tanker...
He couldn`t have gone down like his more illustrious forebears could he?????? (by which i mean canonballing the team who break his door down before sword fighting the rest of them then )
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