X-Men movie uploader gets one-year prison sentence
updated 11:15 pm EST, Mon December 19, 2011
Pirate leaked prerelease cut
US District Judge Margaret Morrow has reportedly ordered a New York resident to serve one year in a federal prison for uploading the 20th Century Fox movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The sentence is particularly stiff for a pirating violation, however the defendant in the case, Gilberto Sanchez, uploaded a version of the film that had yet to finish post-production work.
Sanchez pleaded guilty earlier this year to a charge of uploading a copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution. He claims to have purchased the unfinished movie from an unnamed individual he met on a street somewhere in the Bronx. The video was then uploaded approximately a month before it arrived in theaters.
"The federal prison sentence handed down in this case sends a strong message of deterrence to would-be Internet pirates," said US attorney Andre Birotte Jr, as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter. "The Justice Department will pursue and prosecute persons who seek to steal the intellectual property of this nation."
