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Actor fined over Oscar screener piracy

24 November 2004 12:34 by Jari Ketola | 2 comments

US actor Carmine Caridi has been fined $300,000 for distributing screener copies of movies that were nominated for Oscars. Caridi, 70, handed out copies of several movies to Russel Sprague, who he thought was just a film buff. Instead Sprague, 51, made copies of the movies and distributed them over the Internet.

According to authorities Mr Caridi sent copies of about 60 movies to Mr Sprague. Caridi was sued by Warner Bros for distributing The Last Samurai and Mystic River, and was fined $150,000 per movie by the US District Court in Los Angeles. He was also sued by Columbia Pictures. That case is still pending.

Sprague has pleaded guilty to his charges.

The movie industry hands out screener copies to the press and members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in hopes for getting an Oscar nomination. These copies, published long before any commercially available copy of the movie is available, have long been the source for pirated copies of movies.

Last year the movie industry started paying more attention to the issue which caused a clash between the smaller studios and the MPAA. MPAA banned screener copies from all but the members of the Academy. Smaller studios sued MPAA over the decision because they felt that it greatly diminished the chances of smaller films receiving nominations.

Source: BBC News

Permalink to this article

American Gangster available on P2P prior to theatrical release (26 October 2007)

Oscar screener pirate busted (23 February 2007)

Oscar screener pirate found dead in jail cell (1 March 2005)

P2P users move to TV-Series downloading? (26 November 2004)

Judge slows down MPAA lawsuits (24 November 2004)

Encrypted DVDs to solve the screener problem? (17 June 2004)

Man pleads guilty in Oscar screener case (13 April 2004)

FBI investigates Oscar screener leak (19 January 2004)

MPAA plans to appeal the screener decision (9 December 2003)

MPAA responds to screener lawsuit (27 November 2003)

MPAA sued over DVD screener ban (25 November 2003)

MPAA: No screeners for other than Academy members (17 November 2003)

MPAA and Academy make a deal over Oscar screeners (23 October 2003)

LA Critics call off their awards in protest (20 October 2003)

Writers Guild opposes screener ban (14 October 2003)

MPAA's decision to ban Oscar screeners stands (10 October 2003)

MPAA bans Oscar screeners (1 October 2003)

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Discuss this article!
djscoop (AfterDawn Addict) 24 November 2004 20:33
This case sounds so similar to when Metallica sued Napster a few years ago, where they went after Napster and its loyal fans who were eager to download their music, instead of facing the issue of who stole their music from their studio. At least this time the people downloading it are getting blamed. That sucks for Carmine. I guess the lesson here is make sure you know who you're giving illegal copies to. [ + quote]
Toiletman (Senior Member) 25 November 2004 11:16
Why isn't Russel Sprague taking more of the blame than Carmine? In fact, why is Carmine even sued? Although Carmine Caridi already broke the law by handing out Screener to a person, who he thought, with his own judgment, was a film fanatic, Russel is the one who made copies of them.... [ + quote]