Star Wars online leak
p2p news / p2pnet:- A Hollywood insider and seven of his friends have been charged with leaking Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith onto the p2p networks.
“Court documents allege a chain of events that started at a post-production facility and ended with the film being shown on the Internet a day before its worldwide release,” says the San Francisco Chronicle.
“The charges handed down today by the U.S. attorney prove that forensic markings on screeners and early copies of movies are doing their job in locating movie pirates,” MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America ) boss Dan �Jedi� Glickman is quoted as saying.
‘Revenge’ showed up online the same day it opened in theatres not because of the work of an evil file sharer with Sony’s latest ‘pirate’ camcorder in hand, but because of yet another Hollywood insider leak.
But that didn’t stop Glickman from screaming and frothing about p2p file sharers, BitTorrent and everything.
An AT&T Labs report said a total of 285 movies its researchers sampled on the p2p networks, 77% were leaked by industry ‘insiders’; actor and studio owner Mel Gibson sued a Hollywood post-production house for the online appearance of his Passion movie; and, Russell Sprague got 130 movies from Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences member Carmine Caridi, who was ordered to pay Warner Bros a paltry $300,000 for providing Sprague, who died in an LA jail cell, with the copies.
Federal prosecutors said Albert Valente, 28, of Lakewood, took a copy of the movie from a post-production facility where he worked and gave it to a friend, Jessie Lumada, 28, of Long Beach, says the San Francisco Chronicle, going on:
“Lumada then passed along the movie to Ramon Valdez, 30, of Long Beach, who shared it with three of his friends, one of whom made a copy of the movie and gave it to her cousin, authorities said. he cousin then loaned his copy to Marc Hoaglin, 36, of Huntington Beach, who uploaded the film onto the Internet on May 18, according to the prosecution.
“Also charged were Michael Fousse, 42, of Monrovia; Dwight Sitya, 27, of La Crescenta; Stephani Reiko Gima, 25, and Joel De Sagun Dimaano, 33, both of Los Angeles.
“Valente is charged with willfully infringing a copyright by distributing his copy of the movie. The U.S. attorney’s office said he has agreed to plead guilty. Six defendants are charged with willfully infringing a copyright by distributing or reproducing copies of the film. All were charged with misdemeanors that carry up to one year in prison.
“Hoaglin is charged with one felony count of uploading the movie onto the Internet. He faces up to three years in prison if convicted.”
All eight defendants are slated for a federal court appearance next month, adds the story.
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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win
- Mohandas Gandhi
See:-
San Francisco Chronicle – Eight charged in LA in illegal release of latest ‘Star Wars’ film, September 27, 2005
September 29th, 2005 at 1:57 am
Three years in prison for uploading movie to the internet. Just listen to how absolutely rediculous that sounds.
Our countries aren moving toward police states, where the most minor infraction is treated as if you murdered someone.
The laws are just moronic now. Designed to protect the coporations, not the people. Our civil liberties are all being eroded away.
September 29th, 2005 at 4:04 am
The cartels believe that one person being murdered doesn’t cost them as much money as one person “stealing” a movie or a song does. So from their warped perspectives they feel that “theft” of their “property” should carry higher penalties than would apply for the murder of an individual.
Since they have more money and influence than individuals they seem to get what they want. Just hope they don’t start demanding the death penalty. Well. I guess i’m assuming they haven’t already started lobbying for it in secret. You know, i don’t think that it would be too unlike them to want the death penalty to apply to “piracy”. The scary thing is they’d probly get their way. Even in states that don’t normally allow it.
They’d probly pick a state that does allow it to base their “jurisdiction” in so that any convicted “pirates” could be sent to that state for trial, and then execution. Or maybe they’ll not “waste taxpayers money” on a trial, and just go straight to the execution instead. It doesn’t sound too far beyond the sort of crap they’ve already done and are still doing.
September 29th, 2005 at 10:24 am
crazy how they traced it back to those specific people… bunch of mexicans. seems like their masterpiece would be more protected then that.. what format was it in when he stole it.. how did he get it…
for some reason i think we’ll never know…
September 29th, 2005 at 3:26 pm
Most likely it was a DVD copy of the movie getting ready for the November DVD release. Since he worked there it seems the worker was given a copy of the movie. The article does not say he stole it; he was charged with illegal distribution of his copy. A year in jail just for giving someone a DVD that someone else gave to you (you’d think he distributed drugs).
Either way, I’m sure it is not going to cut into the money that Star Wars will make from US and worldwide sales of the DVD in November.
December 7th, 2005 at 12:40 am
you shouldn’t be saying “bunch of mexicans”
that’s a horrible statement..
it can happen to anybody….
they found it out the internet and then made each individual fess up and traced it back…
this was not your normal copy of some guy just recording it on a video camera in the middle of a theatre… this was a copy with something on it that showed that it was from the actual place where that guy worked…. that’s what done it…
you shouldn’t be saying “bunch of mexicans”
that’s a horrible statement..
it can happen to anybody….
they found it out the internet and then made each individual fess up and traced it back…
this was not your normal copy of some guy just recording it on a video camera in the middle of a theatre… this was a copy with something on it that showed that it was from the actual place where that guy worked…. that’s what done it…
READ THE SF CHRONICLE STORY… it’ll show more details you ignorant mexican hater…