Andre Yoskowitz
3 Jan 2010 16:22
Jack Yates, an employee of an LA DVD duplication company, made a private copy of Paramount's 2008 flop The Love Guru before the movie hit theaters, and decided to distribute it to his family and some friends.
One promotional copy was supposed to be created for the Jay Leno show, but Yates made two copies instead. He was captured on surveillance camera however, and in 2008, Yates pleaded guilty to the theft and was sentenced to six months in prison.
One of the friends he distributed the film to decided to upload it to public torrent tracker Mininova, and this week Mischa Wynhausen has pleaded guilty to uploading the copy and was sentenced to three years probation.
While Wynhausen’s was much more severe than that of Yates, Yates initially lied to authorities and denied the crime. They then promptly showed him video of his theft. Wynhausen cooperated from the outset.
Regardless of the pre-release upload, the Love Guru was a complete flop, both critically and at the box office where it only made $40 million worldwide with a production budget over $60 million.