Film workers pirated The Passion
p2pnet.net News:- Mel Gibson’s movie company, Icon, is suing a Hollywood post-production company claiming bad security allowed three employees to copy The Passion of Christ.
The bootlegs eventually turned up online and on the black market.
Now Icon wants $150,000 in damages and an order stopping Lightning Media – the company involved – and its workers from copying and distributing the movie, says an Eonline story here, going on:
“The feds were tipped off after a three-minute clip of The Passion began playing on the Web and the New York Post printed a review based on a pre-release copy.”
The rips also apparently went on sale at Santa Monica’s popular Third Street Promenade alongside a dupe of Kill Bill: Vol. 1 but, “FBI officials were able to determine they came from Lightning Media,” says Eonline.
Lightning received a copy of the civil complaint late yesterday afternoon and said it’s investigating the facts, says another story in the Hollywood Reporter here.
Lightning attorney Adam Bass said the company has implemented “rigorous anti-piracy standards: Areas where client materials are stored are now only accessible to Lightning employees with swipe cards, 24-hour surveillance cameras have been installed in duplication areas to guarantee the safety of clients’ materials, potential hires are now be subject to criminal background checks, and employees will have to sign and adhere to Lightning’s new anti-piracy policy.”
But that’s not all.
“During a routine traffic stop, police in Somerset, Pennsylvania, turned up cache of bootlegged material in the possession of a 30-year-old Philadelphia man, including more than 1,500 illegal CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes and several dozen copies of The Passion of the Christ,” said the Eonlione report.
“The man, who was en route to Pittsburgh to unload the bootlegs, which he bought in New York for $5,000, was remanded to a local jail where he’s currently being held on an outstanding warrant for drug possession.All told the stash reportedly had a street value of $300,000.”
March 7th, 2004 at 12:26 am
Are these the same behind-the-scenes film workers that Valenti portrays as being hurt by piracy everytime I’m subjected to 20 minutes of previews when I go to the theatre??
March 8th, 2004 at 3:19 am
‘Fraid so!
Film workers hurt my ***! I think the film industry needs to take care of it’s internal bleeding before it starts sticking knives into the movie-watching public.
November 20th, 2004 at 9:08 am