The U.S. Justice Department recently announced its first conviction on criminal copyright infringement charges related to the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file-sharing network. Scott R. McCausland, 24, of Erie, Pa. pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and one count of criminal copyright infringement in violation of the Family Entertainment Copyright Act. McCausland admitted to his involvement with Elite Torrents, a BitTorrent tracker site that the Justice Dept. said at its prime claimed 133,000 members and hosted 2 million copies of pirated works. McCausland provided Elite Torrents with its copy of “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” six hours before it premiered in theaters — a file that was downloaded more than 10,000 times in the following 24 hours. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania has scheduled a sentencing hearing for Dec. 12, where McCausland will face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Links:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2006/September/06_crm_611.html
http://www.elitetorrents.org