Czech Film Pirate Makes Movie Denouncing Piracy to Avoid Paying Damages

A software pirate was handed an unusual punishment by a Czech court after he was told he could avoid paying significant damages if a film he was told to make denouncing piracy garnered 200,000 views.

Thankfully for Jakub F., his time in the front of the camera appears to have paid off. The video current has more than 400,000 YouTube views, meaning he only has to serve the suspended sentence.

Regardless of the outcome, Jakub will still be serving his three year sentence.

Unfortunately, the BSA lawyers did not stop here, and brought financial damages claims against Jakub in total of $373,000 / €351,000, as TorrentFreak reports.

A Czech man found guilty of pirating various pieces of software faced upwards of half a million dollars in fines from the court, after Microsoft, 20th Century Fox and Sony Music demanded compensation for his sharing.

He cooperated on the production of “The Story of My Piracy” video programme that he would promote on YouTube where it must be seen 200,000 times at least. This might be the very definition of “dodged a bullet”.

Torrent Freak, the digital web blog, has helpfully provided a translation of Jakub’s confession in which he says: “I thought that I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I thought that it didn’t hurt the big companies.

But the Business Software Alliance, which represented Microsoft, realised that Jakub was unable to afford to pay the damages. “Even for me, the investigators came to work”.

It’s probably in Jakub’s best interest that people don’t publish pirated versions of the video that could result in fewer views.

The BSE contended that the Jakub had caused them over $500,000 in damages, according to Torrent Freak. “I was convinced that I was too small a fish to be grabbed”.

A spokesman for the companies said that the figure was put in to ensure that Jakub would spread the film’s message as widely as possible but could be theoretically sued by the firms if he didn’t meet the target.

This agreement required Jakub to record a short video (PSA, Public Statement Announcement) in which he would have to document his life as a software pirate.