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X-Men Origins Pirate Draws a 1-Year Sentence
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from geek.com: "In 2009, a copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine found its way on to Megaupload a month before it was due to appear in movie theaters. The so-called 'workprint' copy was unfinished — so unfinished in fact, anyone viewing this copy saw green screens and wires attached to actors used to help with the more acrobatic movements during action scenes. Hugh Jackman even commented on the leak, describing it as like getting a 'Ferrari without a paint job.' The person who decided to share the movie illegally was tracked down, however. He is a 49-year-old New Yorker by the name of Gilberto Sanchez, and he's just been prosecuted." The New York Times' 2010 interview with Sanchez is a good read, too.
As far as I know the Bugatti Veyron Pur Sang comes without a paint job and it's sold as a good thing.
It is also a mortal sin to paint a DeLorean. So sometimes the lack of paint job actually increases its value
The appropriate place for all pirates..
not like he was ripping DVD's to play on his ipod or iphone because the digital copy thing for blu ray is a scam. not like he only watched the stolen copy in his home. he uploaded it so it could be downloaded by others
Sooo, instead of imposing a fine, we'll let the taxpayer foot the bill for a year's incarceration. Brilliant.
The problem with calling it "a Ferrari without a paintjob" is that it's not a Ferrari of a movie. Hell, it's not even an Hyundai Elantra of a movie.
At least watching the workprint made it fun: "Claws Grow".
Hilary Rosen's speech was about her love of money and her desire to roll around naked in a pile of money.
Am I right?
Only after its been rear-ended.
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
That movie made over $200m profit after MPAA creative accounting, and before DVD / blu-ray sales. Not bad for yet another comic character flick.
am i the only one who suddenly wanted to see this?
He knowingly shared Wolverine Origins with other human beings. The movie makes The Room look like a masterpiece.
TFA says the jailed guy got the movie on DVD for $5 from some guy in a Chinese restaurant. So the movie was already in commercial, pirate distribution on DVD and the feds did nothing about that. Instead they went after the movie buff who uploaded the DVD for no commercial gain. This sounds more like the usual "war against the internet" than "going after the right person" as the articles propagandistically pretend.
What gets me is that instead of posting it anonymously, he does it under his login and hopes to get bragging rights for the whole thing. That was the really dumb part. If he just wanted to share, he could've done better to protect himself.
"The person who decided to share the movie illegally was tracked down"
Well, not exactly... the person who first uploaded it was tracked down, not the person who first stole it, copy it, and give it to the Koreans to sell on the street.
Seems the person to first share it is still out there...
Worst. Super villain origin. Ever.
Here's the obligatory proportions post. How many people have been arrested for the housing market crash thus far? How much monetary damage did those people actually do in comparison to this guy?... yeah.
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
Only after its been rear-ended.
In that case you'd want the '77 version, before they fixed the gas tank problem.
Come to think of it, I still haven't seen this movie. The first one was good, the second OK, the third... well, you get the picture.
âoeAny society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
That copy was not ripped from a theatrical release DVD. It was obviously copied directly from a data file in some productions houses' work flow. This guy was just an accessory after the fact. And that "Sanchez explained that he actually bought the movie on DVD for $5 from a Korean man in a Chinese restaurant.". So where does the data originate from?
Who ever released the original data is the person who needs to spend time in jail, not some patsy who bought a cheap DVD from an anonymous pusher in some shady restaurant dealing.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Look, I don't really follow the Slashdot party line on this one; I think stealing from artists you respect is stupid, because they won't make you more stuff. And Sanchez was an idiot for uploading this thing from the illegal pirated copy he bought. But his punishment does seem disproportionate, and they still got the wrong guy.
This guy bought stolen goods, and made illegal copies of copyrighted materials. Somebody, somewhere, actually stole the proof from the studio. That is the real crime they should be punishing if they want to stop pre-release pirates. And I won't even bother to point out how effortlessly easy it would be to track copies and identify leaks in this technical audience, because I'm sure you can all come up with half-a-dozen schemes yourselves. If the studios can't be bothered to prevent the leaks or identify and punish the leakers in the first place, why should we care what happens to the leaked materials?
If he had obtained/watch it legally, his sentence would have only been in the neighborhood of two hours.
It's possibly worth noting that that version was actually more interesting than the final cut.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Also has anyone else ever seen when the police do a "raid" on the bootleg dvd sellers on Canal Street in NYC? I've seen it happen a few times and the police move as slowly as possible, it seems to allow everyone time to pack up all their shit and escape. Sometimes enough time for people to pack up entire carts and run down the street with them. Not exactly a possibility for this dude, clearly. No idea what the sentence time is for someone caught with pirated material in real life is compared to online possession/distribution, or maybe it's the same?
This is a research account for studying online commenting so we can create tools to improve moderation.
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506. Criminal offenses6
(a) Criminal Infringement. —
(1) In general. — Any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed —
(A) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain;
He didn't earn any money off uploading it
(B) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000; or
(C) by the distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution, by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial distribution.
The work was a unfinished work that was never going to see the light of day.
(2) Evidence. — For purposes of this subsection, evidence of reproduction or distribution of a copyrighted work, by itself, shall not be sufficient to establish willful infringement of a copyright.
Did they find anyone that downloaded the movie from the megaupload site? If they didn't have anyone to show that download it then there is no evidence of distribution attributive to him. It might have over some some where else.
(3) Definition. — In this subsection, the term “work being prepared for commercial distribution” means —
(A) a computer program, a musical work, a motion picture or other audiovisual work, or a sound recording, if, at the time of unauthorized distribution —
(i) the copyright owner has a reasonable expectation of commercial distribution; and
(ii) the copies or phonorecords of the work have not been commercially distributed; or
(B) a motion picture, if, at the time of unauthorized distribution, the motion picture —
(i) has been made available for viewing in a motion picture exhibition facility; and
(ii) has not been made available in copies for sale to the general public in the United States in a format intended to permit viewing outside a motion
I think he has a goo case for bad representation and for appeal.
conversations where 3onflicts that
I know what the law says, and I know that he broke the law. But consider this: there was no provable financial harm to the producers of the film. No one was hurt. No one was deprived of anything. Yet, this guy is deprived of his freedom for one year and earns a permanent criminal record. This was a classic victimless crime and I would argue that that makes it no crime at all.
Recently, a Social Security employee was robbed and shot. The shooter, recently released from prison after 9 months "time-served" of a 10 year sentence for armed robbery.
So armed robbery, and you can be out in less than a year. Upload an unfinished video of a film and it's a year in prison.
The avg person's well being is meaningless to the Law. But the profits of a stealing mega-corporation, now that the Law is concerned with.
There is a point where the Sheriff is corrupt, and his badge is nothing more than a bully pulpit.
Somebody knows way too much about Ford Pintos, even for /.
I was living in Beijing at the time of the leak and they started selling the leaked version in the DVD shops, didn't know it was an unfinished product when I bought it though.. I was pretty amused at the lack of special effects for most scenes. Thanks Sanchez!
make the government responsible for policing your profits, and at their expense
Almost fell out of my chair laughing. Government benefits more from this complex, ambiguous, unjust, and exploitable system of law than any other group you can name. The system rakes billions of dollars through the business of government each year. Ever heard of administration overhead? In the business of government -- where you're spending other people's money -- administration is a profit, not a loss.
Of course the real jackpot is the leverage afforded to the elite who run the business of government by this system of law. As everyone knows, you don't make a fortune in the business of government with your paycheck. You do it behind the scenes.
It's more like having a Ferrari with every kind of shielding stripped so you actually get to see how the valves work and how the transmission shifts.
Personally, I'd almost say that "working copy" is more interesting than the finished movie. But that's the geek in me, I don't like magicians for the same reason: I wanna know how stuff works!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
He should be effin' glad the badge isn't seen as the aiming cross. But we're getting there, give it time.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
And so don't the similar harsh penalties for what once used to be organized economic crime strike you as disproportionate at least in some copyright cases where it has been reduced to as little as an inadvertent mouse click?
Cf. http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2008/11/cory-doctorow-why-i-copyfight.html - and that's by a published author who makes a living selling his works.
...not that movie. ;-)
police state.
Lock up everyone for everything.
I hope someone beheads the judges whole family and makes him watch.
every government protects its country's business interests. What's amazing is that this is a revelation to apparently grown up people.
Upload a single movie: 1 year
Giant multi-billion-$ corporate fraud: 6 months or so
If it didn't to feed the monster, we might want to also charge the production and distribution companies for fraud in claiming this awful movie was entertainment.
Perhaps he could be released earlier as well. But this is ridiculous. In fact, his uploading of the movie probably generated more buzz for the studio than the studio is willing to pay for. So he may have helped the studio make more money indirectly.
There's no need to put someone in prison who isn't a danger to society; its too expensive. Just cut off a pinky.
You really think that we should add another prisoner to an already over-crowded, over-burdened prison system just for that? Please, this punishment is way out of proportion with the "crime."
Palm trees and 8
Does anyone else see the madness in taking away a real person's liberty and pursuit of happiness in order to sate the artificial rights of an artificial person? I mean, artificial persons don't even risk imprisonment had the committed crimes against him, yet if he commits a crime against an artificial person, he gets removed from life for a period of time.
Everyone involved in distributing X-Men: Origins: Wolverine deserved a year in prison, not just the pirates.
This doesn't count DVD sales & royalties scammed from the cable companies to show it on TV. This also doesn't include merchandising.
Now factor in Hollywood accounting and poormouthing and we now know why the studio loses money on a film that was made for 32 million and brought in half a BILLION
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
Except that the plane returned to the factory unassisted with the tanks back to empty (and clear of fumes) and the only way anyone knew what had happened is that there were several reports of an unpainted 747 flying overhead.
Oh and by some miracle the engine lifecycle had been reset to zero and the engines and all other parts that would have experience wear were magically returned to new.
In fact it was later revealed that it was all a magic trick and the thief/pilot had simply generated an illusion of the plane that the security guard saw fly away and plunge into the ocean after a parachute was seen opening a minute earlier.
In fact... no, your analogy was shit because no single use only physical object was stolen (except for perhaps a physical DVD disc). All the data, and work and editing and props and Hugh Jackmans and such were all still in place and available for post production work if necessary and the movie still went on to make stupid money:
Budget: $150,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: $85,058,003 (USA) (3 May 2009) (4099 Screens)
Gross: $373,062,864 (Worldwide) (1 October 2009)
So you really think he's going to be in prison for one year?
I certainly don't.
I think I'd take a year in federal prison before I'd accept a financial judgement for a ridiculous sum that would ruin me forever.
Maybe I'm missing some information, though.
More like a rusted out pinto. That movie was garbage.
What exactly is the charge? I had a quick read through the article and it was not mentioned.
AccountKiller
1. Release pirated copy ...
2. Claim massive losses
3. Lobby Congress
4.
5. Profit!
I fucking loved it because I have never seen an entire movie in this form.
Definitely explains why everything looks so fake nowadays.
I'll be deleting the finished X-Men movie long before I will delete this gem.
About what? You haven't said anything.
I am seriously outraged. My tax dollars should not be used to help support the copyright industry. It's one thing to sue monetarily, it's another thing to put someone in jail for a year to the cost of the taxpayer for $50,000 a year. Second it's cruel.
It's one thing to give a business a tax break, it's another for government to actually do their job for them and enforce a flawed business model. To become their bill collectors.
Keep this up and people in this country will revolt. Revolt against the government and Hollywood. Suing and putting people in jail that are your potential customers. What has this country come to.
Fox is awful. I suppose 1 year is better than trying to sue him for millions of dollars. But when will they realize that the leaked version is THE ONLY REASON I SAW IT IN THEATERS. It was really fascinating to see it in progress.
dirty sanchez?