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Three pirates arrested for sharing Oscar screeners

24 February 2009 0:14 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 13 comments

Three men from California have been arrested and charged with sharing or uploading unauthorized movies, notably the Oscar screeners for "Slumdog Millionaire," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "Australia."

According to the FBI, Jack Yates of Porter Ranch, California, was an employee at Los Angeles Duplication & Broadcasting (LADB) where he was told to make a DVD copy of the "Love Guru" for Jay Leno to show clips of on his show.

Footage from the LADB shows Yates making two copies, then concealing the second one and taking it to his car. The then passed the copy on to someone who uploaded it on June 19th, one day before its theatrical release.

Yates is also accused of lying to the FBI which carries up to a five year jail sentence. The pirating of the movie can earn him up to one year in prison.

In the other cases, Derek Hawthorne is accused of uploading both "Benjamin Button" and "Australia" to the semi-private torrent tracker Demonoid and Owen Moody is accused of uploading "Slumdog" to the public tracker The Pirate Bay.

Permalink to this article

Private torrent tracker taken down in Germany (28 March 2009)

MPA calls piracy crackdown a huge 'success' (20 February 2009)

EU's 'largest' piracy gang gets busted (11 February 2009)

'Three strikes' law shut down in Germany (3 February 2009)

Eircom settles with Big 4 labels (30 January 2009)

Comcast, AT&T to help RIAA? (28 January 2009)

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DTN107 (Member) 24 February 2009 1:05
well... they were caught before they even watch it. Nothing illegal happen then. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 24 February 2009 1:06
kyo28 (Junior Member) 24 February 2009 4:51
*Originally posted by DTN107:* well... they were caught before they even watch it. Nothing illegal happen then. I don't think this matters. The fact that they make it publicly available without owning the copyrights to said work is illegal. [ + quote]
ElTwo (Newbie) 24 February 2009 8:45
"Love Guru" was a crime. [ + quote]
SProdigy (Member) 24 February 2009 10:36
Stop the presses! *Quote:* According to the FBI, Jack Yates of Porter Ranch, California, was an employee at Los Angeles Duplication & Broadcasting (LADB) where he was told to make a DVD copy of the "Love Guru" for Jay Leno to show clips of on his show. His employer TOLD HIM to bypass the DVD encryption? Or did LADB have the masters for pressing? Does LADB have the right to distribute as many copies as seen fit? Other than video surveillance, you would think they could track the amount of copies floating around by other means. [ + quote]
georgeluv (Member) 24 February 2009 10:42
^ you can make as many "backup" copies as you want of your own dvds, dont let the stupid tv tell you otherwise. this wasnt his dvd though, but im sure his encoding studio had the right to cut up the screener, it was for freakin the tonight show. [ + quote]
biver (Newbie) 24 February 2009 12:52
*Originally posted by ElTwo:* "Love Guru" was a crime. I concur [ + quote]
jony218 (Senior Member) 24 February 2009 21:01
5 years for lying to the FBI... What criminal is going to tell the truth? If this is true, then everyone in prison should get an extra 5 years added to there sentence. If he had told the truth he would have been arrested on the spot. A typical "catch 22" conundrum. I do agree on one thing though, the "love guru" is the real crime here. [ + quote]
plazma247 (Junior Member) 25 February 2009 5:08
*Quote:* *Originally posted by ElTwo:* "Love Guru" was a crime. I concur I also concur, move and carry the notion of the right honorable gentleman [ + quote]
Fiji5555 (Junior Member) 25 February 2009 6:53
woo I sure feel a LOT safer now knowing the FBI is spending my tax dollars arresting such violent criminals (SARCASM) [ + quote]
vballstud (Inactive) 25 February 2009 8:29
*Quote:* *Quote:* *Originally posted by ElTwo:* "Love Guru" was a crime. I concur I also concur, move and carry the notion of the right honorable gentleman Well... Jessica Alba was in the movie, so it wasn't a total crime. [ + quote]
plazma247 (Junior Member) 25 February 2009 12:31
*Originally posted by leonle:* I also concur piracy should be stopped. Not sure who your concuring with were calling love guru a crime, we failed to express our views on piracy. [ + quote]
Nbj (Newbie) 25 February 2009 23:55
*Originally posted by leonle:* I also concur piracy should be stopped. quit trolling! hah [ + quote]
ericg8 (Inactive) 27 February 2009 10:41
If I had a business, and one of my employees stole the valuable property of one of my large customers causing him financial loss and threatening our future business relationship, then yes, I would want that employee caught, charged, and convicted. As for copying the movie for Jay Leno, that was authorized at the direction of the copyright owner. No crime there. [ + quote]