INTERNET  A Student is Punished for Illegal Distribution of MP3s

College student Jeffrey Gerard Levy, a Phish and Grateful Dead fan, will have to give up his home Internet account and CD burner as punishment for illegally distributing MP3s and other copyrighted material online, his lawyer said. Levy pleaded guilty in August, becoming the first person convicted under the 1997 No Electronic Theft Act, a federal anti-piracy law.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Hoar, who prosecuted the case in Eugene, Ore., said, "Copyright infringement on the Net is theft, and people will be held accountable for it." Hoar said if authorities had been able to gauge more accurately how much material was distributed, they could have pressed for three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Levy said he traded music and other materials rather than distributing them freely. He said he had dozens of songs on the FTP (file transfer protocol) server in his Eugene residence.