U.S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton handed down a sentence last week against Alvin A. Davis, 42, for illegally selling pirated music via his website. In addition to the six month jail sentence, Davis was ordered to pay $3,329.50 and will have to serve a year of supervised parole once he is out of jail. He will also not be allowed to access a computer during that time. 

Davis operated a website at EmpireRecords.com from July 2000 to October 2002, where he sold over 100 different compilation CDs and cassette tapes containing copyrighted music he had no right to distribute. His collections were said to be of the urban music variety and each CD or cassette reportedly contained songs from various artists. 

The Feds filed their case and arrested Davis after an undercover FBI agent purchased more than 200 of the CDs from EmpireRecords.com located in New York and had them shipped to Washington D.C. 

U.S. Attorney Roscoe C. Howard Jr. issued the following statement after Davis was sentenced, "Today's sentence sends a strong message to anyone involved in piracy that there is a significant price to pay for this kind of illegal behavior." 

Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA, the music industry trade group that has been waging their own battle against online piracy had this to say, "These cases should put music pirates everywhere on notice. Trafficking in pirated CDs and other forms of copyrighted music is illegal and can come with stiff penalties. 

So it appears that not only those who trade music via file-sharing networks need to worry about legal consequences of their actions but those who sell pirated CDs online should watch their back as well. One browse through eBay and you can find plenty of black marketers selling illegal copies of CDs, not to mention similar sites to the one that Davis operated. 

This news comes the same week that a new "legal" version of Napster was launched (see story)

more on RIAA