I hope that CTU has set up a perimeter for this dangerous criminal. Apparently, Jorge Romero gained access, through the Internet, to the first 4 episodes of '24' before they aired this season, and he uploaded them to another website which made them publicly available. Under a new law, signed by President Bush in 2005, this is now punishable by large quantities of jail time and enormous fines. This guy could go to jail for three years for uploading these TV shows.
This shows how disproportionate the punishments for copyright infringement have gotten compared to the damage caused. If this guy had stolen the tapes from Real Time Studios (the production company for '24'), as long as he didn't try to upload them to the Internet, it would probably be considered petty theft. However, upload them to the Internet, and all of the sudden, it's a major felony. The kowtowing of the US Government to the RIAA, the MPAA and the TV studios (content owners) is really unlike any other industry in America.
Also, it's not as if Mr. Romero was a person who had special access given to him by FOX or Real Time Studios. According to the story, he actually found the episodes on another website, which means he wasn't the first to have them on the Internet. The moral is clear: repeatedly drive drunk and with a suspended license, go to jail for 23 days. Upload a TV show to the Internet, throw away the key.
Update: Check out this link for a partial list of congresspeople who take the blood money from the RIAA. Some notables: Obama, Clinton, Specter, and Feinstein.
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