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YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in prison for obstructing probe into plane crash

justice.gov

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Re: YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in prison for obstructing probe into plane crash

#121

Post by RagnarD »

ipqk wrote: post #102
mattmaroon wrote: post #39

He deserves a much longer sentence for this. There is so much risk of killing someone or damaging property. Even in a remote area you cannot be sure there is nothing below or that you won’t start a forest fire. I’ve seen less bad crimes get years.

Lots of things that could harm or kill someone just get a small fine. For example, going 5 mph over the speed limit has likely killed many people over the decades, yet it's still only a $100 ticket or so.

Arbitrarily low speed limits for political reasons including cynical revenue generation have certainly caused more accidents. Interstates were designed to be safely driven at much higher speeds than 55 or 65. Causing traffic to pile up is certainly a cause of chain collisions.

Re: YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in prison for obstructing probe into plane crash

#122

Post by dzhiurgis »

mozman wrote: post #17
duskwuff wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A federal felony and a 6-month prison sentence, on their own, would almost certainly tip the scales to "not worth it". I wouldn't be surprised if there were also a disgorgement involved.

It’s a big black mark on your reputation, it’s rarely worth it. He could have injured or killed someone for a video. Crime doesn’t pay

> He could have injured or killed someone for a video.

I'm pretty sure you are more likely to kill someone driving to work today than crashing a plane in some random as forest.

Re: YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in prison for obstructing probe into plane crash

#123

Post by mcmoor »

ryandrake wrote: post #24
WillPostForFood wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legal fees alone are going to be many times YouTube revenue. Add lost wages for a half year in prison. Add future lost revenue from sponsors who don't want to be associated with this, and it has to be a huge financial disaster.

Even if the legal fees weren't many times the revenue, I never understood why couldn't the justice system default to fines like "All income arising out of crime + $XYZ" for all crimes, so that the fine is never a cost of doing business?

I'd argue that it's shouldn't even be only income + $xyz, it's income * (1 / chance of succesful enforcement) to reduce companies that thought that as long as it's hidden enough you'll be safe. It'll be a lot more arbitrary though.

Re: YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in prison for obstructing probe into plane crash

#124

Post by constantly »

altairprime wrote: post #38
ryandrake wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if the legal fees weren't many times the revenue, I never understood why couldn't the justice system default to fines like "All income arising out of crime + $XYZ" for all crimes, so that the fine is never a cost of doing business?

What percentage of viewer income was due to the crime?

I presume this is hypothetical. A reasonable start would be to see the difference average views on a video and views on this particular video times as revenue per view.

Admittedly I’ve never heard of this guy and avoid most YouTube “creators” and it got a view out of me out of morbid curiosity and so I could speculate on whether it was pre planned.

Re: YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in prison for obstructing probe into plane crash

#125

Post by hackerlight »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #10
fxtentacle wrote: post #8

For me, the really interesting question is not if he's guilty - I had assumed as much - but if he will come out financially successful. That video had millions of views and a sponsorship deal. Call me a cynic, but it seems that some companies will deliberately break the law and pay the price if it's worth it, so why not independent hustlers.

Legal fees alone are going to be many times YouTube revenue. Add lost wages for a half year in prison. Add future lost revenue from sponsors who don't want to be associated with this, and it has to be a huge financial disaster.

We have the benefit of hindsight. If he thought there was a 20% chance of being caught, then maybe 0.2*(legal fees + other consequences) < $profit + fame.

Re: YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in prison for obstructing probe into plane crash

#126

Post by vkou »

mplewis wrote: post #58
avar wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [...]this doesn't mean that he would have gotten away with it if he'd cooperated[...] If he'd stuck to the story that he just had an engine mishap would they have been able to prove that it was intentional? They'd almost certainly have revoked his license to ever fly again, but filming everything you're doing isn't illegal. Nor is wearing a parachute because you know you're a crappy pilot that'll bail out at the fi…

Yes, because nothing in the plane caused a loss of power.

And even if it did, he made no effort to resolve the issue.

Re: YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in prison for obstructing probe into plane crash

#127

Post by s1artibartfast »

bmitc wrote: post #91
resolutebat wrote: post #11

Plenty of previous discussion on HN, but IMHO the most interesting one was the early dissection of whether or not the crash was intentional: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29729307

I don't recall any discussions being particularly interesting because even a cursory, single watch of the video made it immediately apparent that he crashed it on purpose.

Interesting is obviously subjective to the observer, but subjects can be interesting and informative in their detail and not just their conclusion.

Re: YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in prison for obstructing probe into plane crash

#128

Post by dataflow »

ryandrake wrote: post #24
WillPostForFood wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legal fees alone are going to be many times YouTube revenue. Add lost wages for a half year in prison. Add future lost revenue from sponsors who don't want to be associated with this, and it has to be a huge financial disaster.

Even if the legal fees weren't many times the revenue, I never understood why couldn't the justice system default to fines like "All income arising out of crime + $XYZ" for all crimes, so that the fine is never a cost of doing business?

Probably because it's not necessarily always a proportional punishment?

Like if you drive somewhere with a suspended license somewhere and make a million dollars as a result, should all that money be subject to seizure?

Re: YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in prison for obstructing probe into plane crash

#129

Post by smcin »

fxtentacle wrote: post #8

For me, the really interesting question is not if he's guilty - I had assumed as much - but if he will come out financially successful. That video had millions of views and a sponsorship deal. Call me a cynic, but it seems that some companies will deliberately break the law and pay the price if it's worth it, so why not independent hustlers.

A more hip headline would be "Feds hand YouTuber the ultimate demonetization for plane crash vid"

Re: YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in prison for obstructing probe into plane crash

#130

Post by laborcontract »

fxtentacle wrote: post #8

For me, the really interesting question is not if he's guilty - I had assumed as much - but if he will come out financially successful. That video had millions of views and a sponsorship deal. Call me a cynic, but it seems that some companies will deliberately break the law and pay the price if it's worth it, so why not independent hustlers.

We're living in the age of advertisers hyperfixated on brand safety. I can't see any brand thinking it's a good idea to throw money at this guy. More attention is a good thing until you're OJ Simpson.
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