A Year Ago: Student sentenced for MP3 distribution

First illegal MP3 distribution conviction leads to probation, Internet restriction, urine samples for Oregon student

The first person ever to be penalised for the illegal distribution of MP3 files and other digital media has received a two-year probationary sentence for his crimes.

Gerard Levy, a 22-year-old student the University of Oregon, was also told Tuesday that he will have his Internet access restricted and will be forced, as part of his probation, to provide urine samples proving he's not on drugs.

Levy is the first person to ever be convicted for MP3 pirating under the US No Electronic Theft (NET) Act, after he was found to have posted approximately $70,000 (£43,505) of pirated music on his University based Web site.

System administrators at the University of Oregon unsurprisingly became rather suspicious when they discovered that Levy was distributing 1.7GB of data every couple of hours.

Take me to the MP3 Special

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