Man faces jail after uploading screener
p2pnet news view | P2P | Movies:- A 25-year-old man is facing three years in jail and a possible fine of a quarter of a million dollars after admitting he downloaded, and then uploaded, a copy of Slumdog Millionaire.
“At the time Moody uploaded the movie, it was in limited release in domestic theaters and was not yet available on DVD,” says assistant US attorney Lisa E. Feldman of the San Diego cyber and intellectual property crimes section.
An official cyber and intellectual property crimes section?
Yup. Such is the power of the cartels.
But what’s really interesting is the copy apparently came from an unidentified Hollywood insider.
Moody, aka Tranceyo and Gizmothekitty, found Slumdog Millionaire on funfile.org, “where someone had uploaded a digital copy of the movie that had been sent as an Academy Award ’screener’ to a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for voting consideration,” Feldman admits.
“After searching the Internet and realizing the movie was not readily available to the general public, Moody downloaded the movie from funfile.org and uploaded it to piratebay.org, along with creating links to the movie on the two other websites,” she says.
Feldman doesn’t say if a search is now on for whoever uploaded the flick in the first place.
Moody will be sentenced in October.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Lisa E. Feldman – San Diego Man Guilty of Movie Piracy – Slumdog Millionaire on Internet, July 22, 2009
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July 24th, 2009 at 8:53 am
From your source (http://lawfuel.com/show-release.asp?ID=22506):
“The cases against Moody and Hawthorne were investigated by the United States Secret Service.”
Really? The Secret Service has nothing better to do than investigate copyright infringement?
I’m so glad I don’t live in the US.
July 24th, 2009 at 9:00 am
Thanks, David.
On Hawthorne, the bit I didn’t include reads, “Two weeks ago, a Ventura County man who obtained Academy Award screeners of ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ and ‘Australia’ pleaded guilty to uploading the films to the Internet. Derek Hawthorne, 21, of Moorpark, pleaded guilty to two counts of uploading a copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution. He is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner on September 28.”
Cheers!
July 24th, 2009 at 9:43 am
http://www.slyck.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=48099&start=0 San Marcos Man Pleads Guilty To Movie Piracy
July 24th, 2009 at 9:59 am
This is fantastic. Slumdog Millionnaire is making more than $150 Million in Box Office sales, all that thanks to the buzz from this 25-year old screener uploader which also triggered buzz among Oscar awards voters. For a film that cost less than $15 Million to make.
This is friggin hillarious how moronic this copyright system is.
July 24th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Correction, Slumdog Millionnaire has made $360 Million in the box office so far. More than 20x more than the production budget.
July 24th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Good catch.
July 24th, 2009 at 10:18 am
The link from ‘me Says’ (above) leads to a comment from Overnet User who in turn suggests:
“Very Limited Information, Title may should say “FunFile.org linked to pirate’s conviction” bc that is where the file originated. Sounds like a honeypot trap to me. The file was placed to the site, user finds it and notices it not avalable anywhere else, post it at other places, cartel nabs first seeder in swarm. They wanted to get their headlines (Cartel) so this is probably what they did considering that its piratebay, mininova, and demonoid.com also listed. I am assuming that when he posted the torrent to his account and the Cartel was monitoring, it wasn’t hard to tie him to his sn. I am presuming that the sites did not give it away.
“The Cartel is getting desperate and wants to make headlines to deter people from dl/up.”
But, “Pirate on, however you do it,” says Overnet User.
They can’t win.
Cheers!
July 24th, 2009 at 11:56 am
” âVery Limited Information, Title may should say âFunFile.org linked to pirateâs convictionâ bc that is where the file originated. Sounds like a honeypot trap to me. ”
Just my opinion, but according to the RIAA lawyers, just having the file available implies INTENT to distribute and CONSENT to
distribute. If it can be proven that the an MPAA member put that file there for the express purpose of being downloaded, it
therefore should stand to reason, by the industry lawyers own arguments that the MPAA CONSENTED to the file being
distributed, and the INTENDED it to be distributed over the net.
July 24th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I can’t help but equate this with the other issues at hand, and as reporoted on this very site in relation to this film.
1. per the story, this guy faces a $250,000 fine.
250,000$ (almost the price of Ipredior if surfer has a beer and converts this
)
2. The Children Stars of this movie have been neglected, given nothing, lost their homes, tossed out on the street and only when the bad press circulated did the exec’s/movie studio’s give them a house as promised.
But yet, this guy is liable for 250,000$?
Guilty for upload/distribution?
Guilty for making to links?
Yes Jon, Its a honey pot ion my mind, good catch.
Meanwhile all those kids in the movie maybe saw a hotdog and a mars bar out of it. And two of them got a house (after years and bad press).
Who’s the thief?
Who exploited what and whom?
Maybe the Secret Service can find these kids the money and housing they deserve instead of playing to the media? Seems they have time on their hands.
July 24th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
What is concerning is:
1. American Secret Service are now apparently making file-sharing a priority.
2. Prison sentences are being considered. – i.e.: File sharing has moved (illegally?) from the civil to the criminal lists.
Neither of these are a good omen. I consider it would tae no less than a Presidential mandate to get the secret service involved in file sharing.
That would therefore suggest that President Obama has decided that File Sharing is the tipping point for 1984.
July 25th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
” 2. Prison sentences are being considered. – i.e.: File sharing has moved (illegally?) from the civil to the criminal lists. ”
A bad thing ?
Maybe.
If the RIAA were forced to take the people they are now suing to CRIMINAL court, the
charges would never stand up to the very tough burden of proof required in criminal
cases.
There is no way the mediasentry illegally gained evidence would be allowed.
The RIAA would have to SHOW PROOF that someone other than an RIAA
agent downloaded the file.
The hand doctored evidence would be laughed out of a criminal courtroom.
Let’s take a file sharer to criminal court and set some precedents, shall we ?
July 25th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
” That would therefore suggest that President Obama has decided that File Sharing is the tipping point for 1984. ”
I’d say that’s a bit of a stretch.
I would think that Obama has so many other things he needs to try to fix that he has to rely on
and trust ( wrongfully ) others in his staff to handle what my be looked at to be smaller
issues. Of course, someone in a position of power should be more careful in whom he trusts.
I doubt Obama has any real knowledge of the lawsuits, and the p2p crap, other than what his
‘trusted’ advisors tell him.
July 25th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
The 21st century.
The era that the word Trust became synonymous with the word Deceit.
July 25th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
The victim should have used a seedbox.
July 25th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
“I doubt Obama has any real knowledge of the lawsuits, and the p2p crap, other than what his âtrustedâ advisors tell him.”
Nobody could convince me that there’s anything happening on a national scale that the US President isn’t aware of.
[rant]
This horseshit about a “narrow window of information” being conveyed to the President is something you can probably thank Dubya for making so famous. This is what the White House has been feeding its Public for a number of years, and the People, amazingly enough, still f’n believe it to this day! The whole Administration always pleads ignorance to everything, and that seems to get them off the hook for everything.
Americans really need to wake TF up.
[/rant]
July 26th, 2009 at 2:27 am
Funny coincidence. It wasSlumdog Millionare that my friend’s neighbor got a notice from his ISP for downloading. It was the first movie he’d ever downloaded from BitTorrent and right after he downloaded it, he got an email accusing him of copyright infringement. It scared him so much that he deleted the movie, deleted the BT software and then called them up to ask apologize and promise he’d never do it again.
July 28th, 2009 at 9:13 am
If the man was sooooooo stupid to upload to a Torrent where everyone knows you leave digital fingerprints , he deserves all he gets . As for it being a “honeytrap” , thats all just conjecture , as for him getting a jail term and his fine – again , until he gets sentenced/fined , its all conjecture and “journalistic” hyperbole . The amount of self righteousness is at Olympic level on this site , the idiot downloaded it and thought he`d massage his ego by sharing ………and he got caught , tough poo poo .