Just this past week, a Canadian court sentenced a Winnipeg man for running one of the largest physical piracy operations in the world. The convicted, Raj Singh Ramgotra, burned thousands of songs onto a CD and sold them via his website in incredibly reduced price. On the facts of the case he is said to have received at least 150,000 canadian dollars in profit.
There were over a dozen charges of copyright infringement levied upon the Ramgotra; all of which he pleaded guilty for. Ramgotra has received a two year suspended sentence and was fined a total of 550,000 canadian dollars; 400,000 was for restitution and 150,000 to cover the court costs.
Normally this would be the part of the blog where I would consider whether or not the decision was too harsh. This is because, in my opinion, the judiciary in most countries sometimes sympathise a bit too much with the music industry. However, I really don’t think there is much to debate here. Ramgotra wasn’t infringing copyright for personal consumption (as is usually the case), but was doing it purely in the pursuit of profit. Furthermore, the fine seems to be completely proportional to the profit he received.
Sources:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-businessman-fined-550k-for-music-piracy-1.2470815
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/Media-piracy-costs-city-man-550K-236617071.html
