4,789 Stolen Records = 8 Years in Jail

The Sun-Sentinel is reporting that Scott Levine, 46, of Boca Raton, Florida was just sentenced to 8 years in prison for the theft of 4,789 computer files from a company called Acxiom Corp. Levine's company, called "Snipermail Inc," distributed Internet ads to e-mail addresses. The name Snipermail probably tells you all you need to know about the ethics of the venture.
We're happy to see judges starting to hand down serious sentences for those who use the Internet as a predatory medium. Let's hope we see more prosecutions like this one.

Tiffany vs. eBay. Who's Right?

Our local paper today has an article about a lawsuit filed by Tiffany & Co. against online powerhouse eBay. Tiffany claims that 3 out of 4 of their items for sale on eBay are counterfeit. eBay counters by saying that they are just bringing buyers and sellers together, and that they never take physical possession of the goods.
Both sides have compelling arguments, and we haven't decided yet which side we support. One thing is for sure, though, every fraudulent transaction on eBay chips a little piece away from the edifice of trust needed for online marketplaces to have a chance to function. Something more needs to be done.
One entity that seems notoriously absent from all this, yet again, is our law enforcement system. It seems like they have plenty of cops capable of posing as 14 year olds to catch pedophiles (and they seem to be catching quite a few), so why don't we have more cops posing as eBay buyers to trace down these pirates of counterfeit goods? We've seen plenty of stories just here in the Metro Miami area of cops kicking down doors to bust some guy selling fake rolexes. Is the online world exempt from good old fashioned police work?