Man pleads guilty to Internet piracy charges

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
Posted Aug 30, 2005 5:47 pm PT

LA district attorney gets first conviction for online file-sharing; perp faces up to three years in prison for conspiracy to commit grand theft.

Jed Frederick Kobles was downloading Leisure Suit Larry for the Xbox when Los Angeles cops served a search warrant on his residence in an Internet piracy investigation in late February, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

The investigation led to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit grand theft being brought against Kobles earlier this week for his role in operating an Internet site that allegedly facilitated online theft of movies, TV shows, music, and games. Kobles pled guilty the same day the charge was brought against him, and he faces anywhere from probation to three years in prison at his sentencing, scheduled for October 20.

Among the allegedly stolen material was Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, National Treasure, A Beautiful Mind, Madonna music videos, and an episode of The Simpsons.

According to the DA's office, this is California's first criminal Internet file-sharing case. However, a worldwide crackdown on Internet piracy has been in effect for the last couple of months, and is beginning to yield more charges of Internet piracy.

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