Man sentenced to federal prison for uploading “Wolverine” movie

by Stephan Kinsella on December 21, 2011

Story here.

“Reuters reported the New York man was sentenced to one year in federal prison for piracy.

On Monday, Sanchez admitted to illegally uploading an unfinished copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which he said he bought on the streets of Bronx, on the Internet.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow called Sanchez’s actions “extremely serious.”

U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte, Jr. reflected Morrow’s disdain in his own statement.

“The federal prison sentence handed down in this case sends a strong message of deterrence to would-be Internet pirates. The Justice Department will pursue and prosecute persons who seek to steal the intellectual property of this nation,” he said.

… “Although Fox was able to get defendant’s Wolverine workprint removed from his Megaupload account within approximately one day, by then, the damage was done and the film had proliferated like wildfire throughout the Internet, resulting in up to millions of infringements,” prosecutors said in court documents.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem to affect the movie’s profits much. Wolverine ended up making $373 million worldwide.”