File-sharing hub busted
2005-10-21 13:02
Los Angeles - A man who ran an internet file-sharing hub where computer users could swap movie, music and software files was sentenced on Thursday to three years probation and ordered to use the computer only for personal use.
Jed Frederick Kobles, 34, pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy to commit grand theft. He is the first person in California to be convicted for illegal file sharing, prosecutors said.
Judge David Horowitz knocked down Kobles' crime from a felony to a misdemeanour and suspended a 180-day jail sentence.
Kobles also will appear in an anti-piracy ad for the film industry to be shown in theatres, Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey McGrath said.
"I think he has learned a very good lesson out of this," McGrath said.
When investigators searched Kobles' home in February, he operated an online file-sharing hub in Los Angeles known as UTB Smokinghouse under the name Raging8.
Over four days in January, Kobles and other unidentified co-conspirators made films like Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, and National Treasure available on the internet for others to download without permission.
To have access to the free content on Kobles' hub, computer users had to have their own selection of content that they were willing to make available.
An undercover investigator who gained entry into the file-sharing ring downloaded more than 14 movies, TV shows and music videos, prosecutors said.
Kobles declined to comment as did his attorney Paul Kossitch.
- AP