The Los Angeles Times continues its descent into tabloid world with the headline on this article about the conviction of e-waste recycler Eric Lundgren: “Electronics-recycling innovator is going to prison for trying to extend computers’ lives.” Really? That’s shocking.
Because the Times pulled the article from the Washington Post due to some apparent content-sharing arrangement, I checked the Post’s headlines:
Can You Go to Prison for Extending Computers’ Lives?
According to the Times, extending the lives of computers is a crime. While Lundgren should not be in Federal prison in Sheridan, Oregon for 15 months, in my opinion, no one is going to prison anytime soon for extending computers’ lives. This is about counterfeiting and copyright violations.
From the Microsoft blog post about this:
Clifford Lundgren pled guilty to conspiring to traffic in counterfeit goods, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2320(a)(1), and criminal copyright infringement, in violation of 17 U.S.C. § 506(a)(1)(A) and 18 U.S.C. § 2319(a) and (b)(1). Lundgren’s plea related to his role in a scheme in which he created and intended to sell about 28,000 copies of Dell reinstallation discs for Microsoft Windows, without permission from Microsoft. Lundgren appeals his sentence of 15-months imprisonment. He argues the district court erred in calculating the value of the infringed item, which drove his guideline range, and that his sentence is substantively unreasonable as a result.
