My life as an ex computer pirate

[QABoy]

I was telling this story to dmpoole the other night and he thought it would be good to tell here.

Just over five years ago at six in the morning, police and Trading Standards came through my front door and raided my home. I was lucky that all the stuff I'd pirated had gone by 10pm the previous evening and there was no copied stuff in the house. However, Stevie Wonder could see that I was up to no good because of the duplicating towers and all the blank cd's, labels and boxes. They cleared my home of everything computer related and then followed me to work where they found nothing. The eventual outcome was that I'd lost everything computer related and I couldn't own a home computer for five years. They went through bank statements to see where me and the wifes finances didn't match up and to be honest I was very lucky. All holidays were taken in this country and paid for with cash. All my illegal earnings and been frittered away in pubs, restaurants, watching rock bands all over the country and no money was found. They lifted floorboards, went up the chimney and every nook and cranny to see if I was saving money but they found nothing. I wasn't big time but I was earning a decent second wage from it.
At the same time a mate of mine hadn't been so clever, he was big time and they found loads of copied stuff ready to go out. He'd saved thousands and bought a house on the proceedings. He'd also been to Florida five years on the trot. They took his house, car and toys away.
Three years ago I asked for a pardon to get computers for my kids and I was allowed laptops with DVD rom drives but I've never used a computer in the house for nearly five years. I joined these forums about four years ago and did my basic bit of computing on my works PC.
Anyway, my time is soon up and I don't think I'll ever have another PC for myself because it really scared me and I still poo my pants thinking they may come through the door anytime.
As for piracy then just don't do it because the laws are even stricter now.

 

[QABoy]

If he was so obviously in the wrong - I doubt he'd have had the bottle to contest it. No doubt the OP realised that he was very lucky in this case and was probably happy with the outcome.

For the person who asked why he's not buying a PC now, because piracy isn't an addiction. My guess would be that the OP feels the police may come back at any time, just to check up. I'd suspect he just doesn't want to give them ANY reason to start tearing up his house again. Sure its probably a little over cautious, but I can see why he might want to avoid PC's in his house.

To be honest I was relieved that it happened. For the previous four years I'd been in a trap I couldn't get out of. People relied on me for their stuff and of course greed also played a part. Taking away my PC was the least of my worries and I didn't want to argue the point. I've got on fine without a PC even though the laptops are on broadband upstairs and the wife does all her internetting on them.

 

[QABoy]

theyd blatantly been watching him for a while etc , watching his net activity , maybe watching his house if thats where he was "dealing" from

i imagine if they had of found more stuff then you could have went to jail for a bit ?

very lucky

I was getting that worried that I installed two cameras outside my house to watch for cars pulling up and I had many false alarms. I'd see a car, men get out and within seconds I was out of the backdoor deposting disks over my neighbours fence into the bushes onlt to find it was insurance men or Jehovas. I'd walk out of my house in a morning expecting to be pulled and I'd be on the constant lookout for parked cars with people sitting in them. I was small time and everybody else I knew who did it were at least 10x as much as me. None of this was internet related either and all my stuff came through the post which is another story.
Some people are born to be criminals and some aren't and I fell into the latter category and couldn't get out.

 

[QABoy]

People are asking why I didn't fight when there was little evidence. As far as I was concerned there was loads of evidence and I was guilty as charged. Compared to my mate who had his house taken away I was lucky. I had also bought shame on my wife, kids and parents etc. I gladly accepted their rules and of course I was scared that I would lose my job.

 

[QABoy]

Just to answer some questions I was not in the scene. I was a humble factory boy who had his MP3's delivered through the post, bragged about it and everybody wanted a piece of me. All my customers were out of the offices and a lot of them were my bosses so I had to keep them sweet. Even when I was at my most paranoid I still had to continue making them because my bosses at the time expected it. It was an absolute relief when they came through my door that morning but they wanted other names which I couldn't give them because I had nothing to do with other departments. I didn't even know where my discs came from because it was all PO Box addresses. Honestly, being caught was the best thing that happened to me because I was heading for a breakdown.

We have two laptops in the house connected to the net which the kids and wife use. I'd be a liar to say I've never been on one of them but my home internet activity is probably about once a month looking at Autotrader or for a new toy or something. I have no need for a tower on a table up a corner somewhere. One thing is definite that when I'm made redundant later this year I will not be posting here anymore unless I get an office job with internet access.