A man has become the first ever person to be indicted under a new law in the United States that prohibits making "cam" copies of movies in movie theatres using a concealed camcorder, the U.S. Justice Department stated. Curtis Salisbury, 19, of Missouri made copies of films such as "The Perfect Man" and "Bewitched" which were later distributed around the world by a "warez group". Later on these movies landed on P2P networks where they were downloaded and shared by possibly millions of people.
As well as supplying this group with the copies of the movies, the Justice Department also said that he downloaded several other pirated movies and software from the group. He could face up to 17 years in prison for the crime. Warez groups are what the Justice Department sees as the elite of Internet piracy, releasing tonnes of movies, software and music to the world often long periods of time before their retail release or theatre dates in the case of movies.
Officials did say however, that while being the top of the piracy chain on the Internet, warez groups generally are not motivated by profit. However in this case, the Justice Department said Salisbury had sought payment for movies that he uploaded to the groups sites. He was originally arrested as part of Operation Site Down that targeted member of warez groups in over a dozen countries, many of which have also been charged.
Source:
Reuters
Officials did say however, that while being the top of the piracy chain on the Internet, warez groups generally are not motivated by profit. However in this case, the Justice Department said Salisbury had sought payment for movies that he uploaded to the groups sites. He was originally arrested as part of Operation Site Down that targeted member of warez groups in over a dozen countries, many of which have also been charged.
Source:
Reuters
