FACT reveals that Stephen Millington, now 42, appeared at Chester Crown Court yesterday after pleading guilty to multiple fraud and copyright offenses in connection with his software tools. According to the anti-piracy group, Millington created and built a software package that enabled illegal access to BT Sport, Sky, Netflix and other subscription television content.
He rose to fame in Germany in the 1990s as a hacker and an Internet entrepreneur who took advantage of reporters lack of technical credibility.[6] He was arrested in 1994 for trafficking in stolen phone calling card numbers. He was convicted on 11 charges of computer fraud, 10 charges of data espionage and various other charges in 1998 that he served a two-year suspended sentence for.[6] In 2003, he was deported to Germany where he pleaded guilty to embezzlement in November 2003 and after five months in jail awaiting trial he received another 20 months suspended sentence.[7]
Mr. Fraud torrent
In 2017, a New Zealand court ruled that Dotcom could be extradited to the US on fraud charges related to Megaupload. Dotcom denies any wrongdoing and has accused US authorities of pursuing a vendetta against him on behalf of politically influential Hollywood studios.[11] In 2018, the New Zealand Court of Appeal upheld the lower court's ruling. Dotcom appealed to the Supreme Court of New Zealand, which ruled in 2020 that Dotcom could be extradited to the United States, but that he could challenge the decision through a judicial review.[12]
Schmitz operated a bulletin board system called "House of Coolness" where users would trade pirated software; around 1993 Schmitz was reportedly targeted by German anti-piracy lawyer Günter von Gravenreuth and has become a paid informant.[37] Schmitz was arrested in March 1994 for selling stolen phone numbers and held in custody for a month. He was arrested again in 1998 on more hacking charges and convicted of 11 counts of computer fraud and 10 counts of data espionage.[6] As he was a minor, he was given a two-year suspended sentence;[36] the judge of the case described Schmitz's actions as "youthful foolishness".[38]
Once the hearing finally got under way, Crown prosecutor Christine Gordon, on behalf of the US Government, called it a "simple scheme of fraud".[112] Defence Lawyer Ron Mansfield's 300-page submission began with the argument that the case should be thrown out because the United States Supreme Court ruled in a parallel case in 1982 that copyright infringement was a civil matter and could not be prosecuted as criminal fraud.[113]
In February 2017, the New Zealand High Court upheld the earlier decision of the district court that Dotcom and his three co-accused could be extradited to the United States. However, Justice Murray Gilbert accepted the argument made by Dotcom's legal team that he and his former Megaupload colleagues cannot be extradited because of copyright infringement. The judge said he made this decision because: "online communication of copyright protected works to the public is not a criminal offence in New Zealand". However, Justice Gilbert said there were "general criminal law fraud provisions" in New Zealand law which covered the actions of the accused and they could be extradited on that basis.[118]
This experiment proves however that 99.7% of the tested torrent mirrors are injecting additional JavaScript into the web browsing traffic. A great share of these scripts serve content with malicious intent such as malware and click-fraud.
Over 6,000 online mirrors from these link farms have been inspected in the experiment. The test was relatively simple: the HTML source of the original torrent site such as The Pirate Bay was compared to its mirrors. Any difference between between inline scripts ( tags) or external scripts () meant the mirror is injecting additional JavaScript code into the traffic.
In order to produce these results above, I developed a new application to identify the injected scripts. Although my test was inspired by a similar experiment involving free forwarding proxies, I had to develop my own tool because torrent mirrors are reverse proxies.
I pseudo-randomly chose hxxp://extratorrent.kat.tf, an Extratorrent mirror with 5 additional scripts compared to the original thing on This mirror included the following extra pieces of JavaScript:
Numerous ISPs are blocking access to popular torrent sites for copyright purposes. Internet censorship has created thousands of mirrors that provides access to the censored file sharing sites. Although some of them are operated by good citizens, the majority is monetising the situation by injecting unwanted ads, distributing malware and involving their visitors in click-fraud.
Torrenting has become very popular with the growth of the broadband Internet, which allows users to upload and download large files very quickly. However, torrents are often associated with piracy and illegal downloads. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and copyright owners try to track the IP addresses of torrenters and hold them accountable for unlawful file sharing.
One reason copyright holders are successful is suing torrent users lies in the principle of BitTorrent technology. When you download files using torrents, your new files get downloaded in small portions from various other users, called seeders. The already downloaded pieces of the file become immediately available for downloading by other torrenters. So, technically, you are downloading and sharing files simultaneously.
Copyright holders care less about users who download the content; they care more about users who post or share content. When using torrents, you become a host of the files you download, making you a target of content owners.
To avoid any problems, you can use legal torrents. There are plenty of content types you can download legally. For example, independent movies, old content, and open-source software are often available for free. Below are several good sites where you can find legal torrents:
Today, using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is considered to be the most reliable way to protect yourself while using torrents. VPNs mask the fact you connect to torrent sites and hide your real IP address. They encrypt all traffic before it leaves your computer and send it through a secondary server. This method makes it impossible for an ISP to know what websites you visit and what content you download.
"Die Hard" wasn't intended to be a Christmas movie, but many of us would argue to the death that it is.The producers of "Fruitcake Fraud" didn't make the mistake of pretending there wasn't a Christmas theme. It was filled with Christmas music and fruitcake references.As a true crime fan, I was vaguely aware of this case, and may even have seen this on another show. But the production values of this documentary were excellent. The cast of characters who brought the crime to life made me feel like I was in this quirky, enchanting corner of Texas. I'd love to have a piece of fruitcake with any of them.The crime's victims survived, a little poorer but wiser. The perpetrators were so empty that no amount of money could make them whole. I kept hoping the fraudster could meet an angel like "It's a Wonderful Life's" Clarence, or a friend like Al in "Die Hard."
The time at which credit should be given is also flexible. Although the relevant time is normally the date of the fraudulent transaction, a different date could be used. The guiding principle is: would following the general rules on giving credit for any benefits under-compensate the victim in this case? This case underscores the complexities of defending fraud claims and the optics and policy considerations of any argument should be considered by practitioners at the outset. 2ff7e9595c
Comments