Academy screener bootlegger arrested

[haloblack]

Arrest in movie bootlegging scheme


LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- As part of a Los Angeles-based investigation into the bootlegging major motion pictures, an Illinois man was arrested on charges of copyright infringement and illegal interception of a satellite signal, according to the FBI.

Russell William Sprague, 51, of Homewood, Illinois, was booked Thursday night in connection with pirated films being sold on the Internet -- in some cases, prior to their theatrical or DVD releases.

Sprague is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Chicago Friday morning.

"Stealing movies is tantamount to taking money out of the pockets of everyone involved with the film industry," said United States Attorney Debra W. Yang in a statement.

Felony criminal copyright infringement carries a maximum penalty of 3 years in prison and felony illegal interception of a satellite signal is punishable with up to a 5-year prison term. Each charge carries a $250,000 fine.

Among the movies being illegally sold off the Internet: "Master and Commander," "Last Samurai," "Matrix Revolutions," "Mystic River," "Gods and Generals," "Mighty Wind," "Matchstick Men," "Something's Gotta Give," "Love Actually," "Thirteen" and "Calendar Girls."

The releases are from major film studios like Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures, Universal, Fox, and Disney.

FBI forensic analysis revealed that many of the compromised movies were derived from Motion Picture Academy screeners that were embedded with a new digital watermark that discretely identifies the individual screening tape. This watermark can then be linked to the recipient of the screener.

Screeners are promotional copies of films -- either on tape or DVD -- provided by studios to potential voters for various movie awards.

Most of the compromised movies had been provided to Carmine Caridi, a 69-year-old veteran actor of film and television, and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for approximately 22 years.

An investigation of Caridi revealed that for at least the last 3 years, he had supplied Sprague with virtually every Academy screener -- about 60 per year.

The FBI's Chicago division Thursday searched the Sprague residence in Illinois. Hundreds of Academy screeners were seized -- many of which had been converted to DVD -- along with an array of duplication equipment. Illegal satellite television interception equipment was also seized during the search.

[The village idiot]

Illegal satellite television interception equipment was also seized during the search.

What does this have to do with screeners?

Oh this guy must be an evil criminal person because he has illegal satellite equipment too. A real menace to society he is with the satellite rig. I bet if they look hard enough the might be able to acuse him of cheating on his taxes too. And what, no drugs? Maybe he is a sexual devient too?

Yes, what he did was wrong, but the satellite equipement really means very little unless he was getting some screeners from the satellite service. Not aware of any such service, but it could exist.

[VCDHunter]

Illegal satellite television interception equipment was also seized during the search.

What does this have to do with screeners?

Oh this guy must be an evil criminal person because he has illegal satellite equipment too. A real menace to society he is with the satellite rig. I bet if they look hard enough the might be able to acuse him of cheating on his taxes too. And what, no drugs? Maybe he is a sexual devient too?

It'll be only a matter of time before we hear the "if you download movies you support terrorism" argument. Talk about blown out of all proportion.

[haloblack]

Illegal satellite television interception equipment was also seized during the search.

What does this have to do with screeners?

The guy was busted for selling pirated media. He also had equipment used to pirate media. Not exactly a huge leap there.

Oh this guy must be an evil criminal person because he has illegal satellite equipment too. A real menace to society he is with the satellite rig.

Defensive much? I don't know if I'd call him "evil," and the article certainly didn't, but I'd definitely call him a thief.

I bet if they look hard enough the might be able to acuse him of cheating on his taxes too. And what, no drugs? Maybe he is a sexual devient too?

This guy a friend of yours or something?

Yes, what he did was wrong, but the satellite equipement really means very little unless he was getting some screeners from the satellite service. Not aware of any such service, but it could exist.

Hmm... the guy's a wholesale dealer of pirate dvd's, he has equipment that lets him get pay-per-view for free, and you think it "means very little?" I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you're not a cop. Am I right?

[tgpo]

I don't know if I'd call him "evil," and the article certainly didn't, but I'd definitely call him a thief.

Nope, sorry. He was misquoted. They originally called him a "Big Fat Meanny Stupid Head"

[haloblack]

Nope, sorry. He was misquoted. They originally called him a "Big Fat Meanny Stupid Head"

Jack Valenti, head of the MPAA, was quoted as saying "We hope this arrest sends the message that piracy can never be tolerated. Also, neener neener neener."

[bokkasrealm]

Yes, definitely a thief. Worth the FBI's time? Not bloddy likely. If the question is, "Should we look the other way on petty or less life threatening crimes when there is more important buisness to deal with?". Then the answer is yes, do you feel any safer tonight?

[edsmith77]

It seems as though this Caridi person is the one that should shoulder most of the blame since it was he that did the pirating. Sprague, was only trying to make a buck the good old fashion way. Cutting out the middle man.

[haloblack]

Yes, definitely a thief. Worth the FBI's time? Not bloddy likely.

This guy (and his supplier) were responsible for the release of *hundreds* of pirated movies. Considering that they were in the commercial, pressed, pirated-and-sold-for-money end of the business, I don't see how this could have been more up the FBI's alley.

If the question is, "Should we look the other way on petty or less life threatening crimes when there is more important buisness to deal with?".

Well, I'm sure someone here really needs a new DVD-R drive. Why don't you leave your door open when you leave the house tonight? I'm sure you won't mind if all the police are investigating "more important" crimes.

[tgpo]

"We hope this arrest sends the message that piracy can never be tolerated. Also, neener neener neener."

That was right before his team of actors got up on stage and collectivly said "Nany Nany Boo Boo, stick your head in Doo Doo"

[FOO]

Stealing the movies and selling them is not good .
The frightening part here is that you can be busted for receiving
signals broadcast into the universe. Somebody thinks they own
electromagnetic space. Even when it's in my yard. I should sue the
******** for putting those signals in my yard without consent.
If you don't want people to get your stuff
don't broadcast it into space. Duh !

I reserve the right to listen to anything I can pick up from the ether.

[MysticE]

Yes, definitely a thief. Worth the FBI's time? Not bloddy likely. If the question is, "Should we look the other way on petty or less life threatening crimes when there is more important buisness to deal with?". Then the answer is yes, do you feel any safer tonight?

There's a bit more to it than that, and yes it is worth the FBI's time. The ripple effect of such rampant wholesale piracy affects way more than the studios.

As an owner of a small video store I've seen profits erode while taxes (for me almost double) due to such crap. I've even had morons with flyers and DVD's come to try and sell me some. The many taxes I pay, property, income, various federal programs for my employees are important for the economy. For my employees it puts food and medicine on their table and cops on the street. Too many times I hear how 'we got this already' or 'a friend showed his copy' months before the release date.

At the local Swap-O-Rama in Alsip, IL there are at least a half dozen bootleg vendors. One of them brags how he takes in $2500 every Sunday. They operate with impunity with management and the local cops all apparently in on it.

I got no problem with people making 'backups' for personal use (I do it myself), but this massive piracy for profit usually ends up hurting the little guy and the people (vendors, employess and their children, local government, schools, etc.) in many far reaching ways. I'm sure MR. Busted Bootlegger has made hundreds of thousands of dollars while giving up not one dime to the community.

[tgpo]

I'm sure MR. Busted Bootlegger has made hundreds of thousands of dollars while giving up not one dime to the community.

MOney comes in to the state from the people paying for the illegal movies. The seller of these movies buys more DVD-Rs at a buck a piece from local Office Depot. He just put money from one state into the economy of another.

I'm in no way saying it's right or wrong, merely stating the opposing view.

[DereX888]

When I had my new car stolen when I was a student, no cop - not mentioning FBI - didnt gave a damn about my loss, which constituted of about 50% of my net worth at that time. As a matter of fact had they weren't obliged by the law to take make stolen car report, they'd probably told me to f*off and go call insurance company, without bugging them at all.

Why is it that the same people, still paid of off my and yours taxes (cops, feds) are being heavily used, out of proportion, used to protect property of such rich companies as Warner and other bunch? Is their property more important than mine? I dont condone stealing of any kind, but I'm also against use of federal employees for property protection of any corporation. Every cop/fed wasting his/her time in the investigation and seizure of them stupid tapes could have been assigned to much more dangerous for society crime cases (and I dont even mean terrorism, but stock swindles etc).

It is obvious that with the movies is the same as with music - if it stinks, it wont sell. And if its good, no matter how many pirated vcd/svcd/dvdr copies are out there on the servers - most of people will still buy original DVD when it is released. Its just lame studio's excuse that internet theft (downloading movies/music) cost them so much, most of ppl who download just a song out of entire album wouldnt have bought that album anyway. 10 years ago they would have record that song off of radiobroadcast on a cassette, nowaday they download it in mp3 off of kazaa etc. No differenece.

In a 'big picture' I see no effect on society when song or movie is stolen; but there is huge impact on society when federal employees are used like they were corporation's employees. It only shows without even hiding the fact, and proves, who really runs the government(s).

Just my thoughts.

[tgpo]

Exactly.

Finding Nemo waas all over the net, but it still set records for DVD sells.

LOTR was all over the net, but it still make tons of money in theaters.

It's kinds like the lead singer of Offspring said.

Rough quote, not exact. "If we sell 12 million copies of our single, but without mp3s we would have sold 13 million who cares. It's not that we care about people downloading our music, it's that the company cares about people downloading our music"

This was right before they registered on mp3.com and started offering their music for free.

What the MPAA/RIAA needs to realize is that it's not piracy that's killing them, it's their crappy products. It's all become so cookie cutter now that you can watch one movie and instantly know the plot of a newer movie (like: Love Don't Cost a Thing).

[Moloko_Plus]

Sounds to me like Caridi supplied this guy with the screeners, and he put them on the net for OBUS. 60 per year..wowzers. If I were Caridi id be on the run, unless he snitched on who uploaded them.

[mmasw]

"We hope this arrest sends the message that piracy can never be tolerated. Also, neener neener neener."

That was right before his team of actors got up on stage and collectivly said "Nany Nany Boo Boo, stick your head in Doo Doo"

LOL....now....be honest.....just how far back did you have to reach for that one?

[DaBarrister]

Stealing the movies and selling them is not good .
The frightening part here is that you can be busted for receiving
signals broadcast into the universe. Somebody thinks they own
electromagnetic space. Even when it's in my yard. I should sue the
******** for putting those signals in my yard without consent.
If you don't want people to get your stuff
don't broadcast it into space. Duh !

I reserve the right to listen to anything I can pick up from the ether.

Sure, if it's unencrypted. But if you have to decrypt it using proprietary algorithms - which, I presume, was the case here - then it's stealing. He wasn't busted for receiving them. He was busted (in addition to the video theft) of having illegal equipment to decode signals he was not authorized to receive.

A billion watts of electricity is accessible from your house, but you only have the right to take what you pay for. Same with satellite signals.

[Moloko_Plus]

Ok um, whoever posted this article. Where did you get it from? Im reading it in 2 other places and no where does it say they were sold. It says caridi sent the man the tapes and dvds, the man copied them to dvd, sent dvd copies to people, then returned the tapes to carridi.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2075640


http://p2pnet.net/story/614

[JSB]

Exactly.

Finding Nemo waas all over the net, but it still set records for DVD sells.

LOTR was all over the net, but it still make tons of money in theaters.

What the MPAA/RIAA needs to realize is that it's not piracy that's killing them, it's their crappy products.

'The Hulk'

The net killed that (crappy) movie.

JSB

[Moloko_Plus]

No, the hulk killed the hulk. The MPAA used it as an excuse by saying the leaked workprint was the cause for no one paying attention to it and getting the wrong impression behind it. Those who saw it in theaters had pretty much the same thing to say about it.

[GizmoTheGremlin]

When I had my new car stolen when I was a student, no cop - not mentioning FBI - didnt gave a damn about my loss, which constituted of about 50% of my net worth at that time. As a matter of fact had they weren't obliged by the law to take make stolen car report, they'd probably told me to f*off and go call insurance company, without bugging them at all.

It only shows without even hiding the fact, and proves, who really runs the government(s).

DereX888 is right. A friend of mine in college had all of his car audio equipment stolen out of his car - they also did a lot of damage in the process, but the police wouldn't even take fingerprints because they thought it was a waste of time and money. They pretty much said that the theives wouldn't be caught. Something tells me if that happened to Donald Trump, they would have spared no expense in finding the criminals.

Piracy for profit is completely wrong, and I think it should be stopped at the source. But something is way out of balance.

[FOO]

DeBarrister, Stealing electric power and receiving stuff floating around
in space is fundamentally different.
When you steal electric power , they have to put more coal on the fire to
run the generator - it directly costs them.
..and I have to connect to their equipment to do it. Stealing
Also if I steal Cable TV I have to tap their equipment to do it. Stealing

However
I have the right IMO to sit in my house and make a gadget to recieve
signals and do whatever I want with them.
The reductio ad absurdum here is
What if they claim that 100MHz FM broadcasts are off limits , and I'm not allowed to tune a radio that I made myself to that channel


Nobody owns the Ether, and I can make any kind of gadget I want

[spiderman2k1]

Bootlegs will never go away there here to stay. If you own a video store the bootleg movie's are not your problem Netflix is. More and more people are sign up with netflix to copy movie's now. I have friend's now doing it right now. I was shopping at Best Buy month and I was looking at a Pioneer AO6 another shopper was telling me how he copied 50 movie's so far and was buying his second DVD burner.

If some bootleging Return of the king there just buying to have when the movie is not in the threater any more and trust me there going to do one or two thing when the real DVD get's released. One make a copy from the real DVD or go out and buy the DVD for them self.

And I see Netflix loving it when people buy DVD burner's it one reason to sign up for Netflix. If I own a Video store if some one was renting my movie's to burner there won copies. It's better for me the movie is being rented. If they do not have a burner they might now rent as much.

Now this hole stupit thing about download movie's is just stupit. I have only seen two good bootleg's that are worth having. One was Spiderman and the other was the Two Tower's. To me download movie's is a wast of time. But I have nut bag's for friend's that do it all the time. But I will also say this. If it's a movie they want to see they will download it but will wait until they get to the threater to watch it. If it a goodmovie they keep there bootleg copy. And the wait for the real DVD until it come's out.

[Roundabout]

DeBarrister, Stealing electric power and receiving stuff floating around
in space is fundamentally different.
However
I have the right IMO to sit in my house and make a gadget to recieve
signals and do whatever I want with them.
The reductio ad absurdum here is
What if they claim that 100MHz FM broadcasts are off limits , and I'm not allowed to tune a radio that I made myself to that channel


Nobody owns the Ether, and I can make any kind of gadget I want

FOO,

Exactly.

I agree with you on this point. I remember back in 1977 - 79 there was a subscription channel here in L.A. on local UHF channel 52, that was broadcast at night only, called "ON TV". Some of you out there might remember it. It was also broadcast on local UHF channels in Phoenix and Chicago, I think. In any case, it didn't take long for people to start making roll-your-own decoders. It wasn't very hard, the only thing they did to scramble the signal was invert the horizontal sync pulse so the picture would have a bar down the middle, and the audio was broadcast SCA (also used by FM stations, Sub-Communications Act).

I knew the guy who designed the original "ON" decoder, John Larson, who worked at Rockwell beforehand. He was running a PCB shop making the boards for the bootleg decoders out of his house in La Mirada, CA. He made thousands of them at his house, supplying the entire L.A. area with boards. Then Radio Shack made a fortune off the parts...IC's, Resistors, Caps, Coils, Transformers, etc.

The way he saw it, just like you said, the airwaves are free to receive, and more power to ya if you can figure out how to make use of those waves. You aren't tapping into any equipment or tampering with anyone's property, and affecting no one.

Unfortunately, the people at ON TV didn't see it that way. If you want to talk about ridiculous laws, get this - they (ON TV) lobbied for and got a law passed here in California that made it illegal to "traffic" in certain Transistors, voltage regulators, coils, and so on. The height of absurdity, and totally unenforceable, but just the same, they busted quite a few electronics parts dealers for selling very common electronics components. Though Radio Shack sold them too, they didn't sell ALL of the parts, so they could claim they weren't supplying the "illegal" parts.

In the end, though, they couldn't stop people from procuring the parts and building their own decoders. John Larson was busted and sued for selling blank PC boards with no components on them, it was just a blank board, standard phenolic material with etched copper traces on it, like in any TV or stereo.

Instead of fixing their mistake, and making it harder to decode the signal, they just sued anyone they could. They could just as easily broadcast "in the clear" and say it's illegal to intercept the signal, what would be the difference? They don't own the airwaves, the public does.

But finally, they couldn't stop the people out there from getting it free, and they went out of business. They had a flawed business model, but wanted to blame everyone but themselves. In the end, they lost, because you can't just arbitarily decide you don't like the sale of common electronic components.

Ridiculous? Yes, but it parallels what's going on today with people being able to copy DVD's. They made an algorithm that apparentely wasn't too hard to crack (CSS) and then when someone cracks it, they sue him for being intelligent enough to break it. It will happen over and over again, in the future with new encoding and scrambling schemes, because people love a challenge, just to be able to say they did it. They may not even care that much about whatever it is they are decoding, but they don't like being told they can't do it.

I don't have a satellite dish, but if I did you can be sure I'd be looking for ways to get extra channels. As long as I'm not tapping into a physical line, I can do whatever I want with signals that come into my land and body.

[DaBarrister]

However
I have the right IMO to sit in my house and make a gadget to recieve
signals and do whatever I want with them.
The reductio ad absurdum here is
What if they claim that 100MHz FM broadcasts are off limits , and I'm not allowed to tune a radio that I made myself to that channel

Nobody owns the Ether, and I can make any kind of gadget I want

Oops. Wrong. You're not stealing ether, you're stealing satellite signals. Substituting your own jargon for the truth doesn't make it so. I'd love to see you make that argument in court. "Honest, your Honor, I only took ether." The feddle gubment has passed a LAW that says that's illegal. You may not like it, you may disagree with it, you may even find it to be against the Consitution of the United States of Foo. But none of that matters. What matters is that there is a law, and you're breaking it if you steal the signal. Don't like it? Change the law.

The way he saw it, just like you said, the airwaves are free to receive, and more power to ya if you can figure out how to make use of those waves. You aren't tapping into any equipment or tampering with anyone's property, and affecting no one.

That's false logic, and just because you say so doesn't make it so. The law says it's illegal. You cannot justify an illegal action just because you are not physically trespassing onto their physical property in order to steal. How about trademark law? I don't need to walk onto Coca-Cola's property to infringe their trademark. If I copy it, even crudely with a big red crayon, and I use it in anything else, I've infringed upon the trademark. Case closed.

But finally, they couldn't stop the people out there from getting it free, and they went out of business. They had a flawed business model, but wanted to blame everyone but themselves. In the end, they lost, because you can't just arbitarily decide you don't like the sale of common electronic components.

I hardly think satellite transmission signals constitute a "failed business model." And since when does a "failed business model" give anyone the right to steal? "Yes, officer, they were charging way too much for TVs, no one was buying any, so since it was a failed business model I decided to help myself to one." Sorry, real life doesn't work that way.

They made an algorithm that apparentely wasn't too hard to crack (CSS) and then when someone cracks it, they sue him for being intelligent enough to break it.

No, charges were brought against him for knowingly and intentionally circumventing a copy protection scheme. Whether they could prove it in his case is beside the point. So your test of legality is that if they didn't make it too difficult to steal, you are therefore justified in stealing it? "That's right officer. He turned his back and I took the Rolex. Not my fault he didn't protect it better! That's not stealing." Hmm mmm. Right.

People, don't confuse your opinion of what's right and what's wrong with the facts - the fact is that the unauthorized interception of satellite signals is against the law. Look it up. Justify it all you want with illogical arguments about not tapping their lines, etc. I'm sure the courts will buy your excuse.

If they put it out there, unscrambled, so that anyone with legal equipment can pick it up, then you are 100% correct. But this guy had a descrambler to steal the signals, signals he was not authorized to receive and did not pay to receive.

You don't like the law? Fine. Change it. Good luck.

[next]

However
I have the right IMO to sit in my house and make a gadget to recieve
signals and do whatever I want with them.
The reductio ad absurdum here is
What if they claim that 100MHz FM broadcasts are off limits , and I'm not allowed to tune a radio that I made myself to that channel

Nobody owns the Ether, and I can make any kind of gadget I want

Oops. Wrong. You're not stealing ether, you're stealing satellite signals. Substituting your own jargon for the truth doesn't make it so. I'd love to see you make that argument in court. "Honest, your Honor, I only took ether." The feddle gubment has passed a LAW that says that's illegal. You may not like it, you may disagree with it, you may even find it to be against the Consitution of the United States of Foo. But none of that matters. What matters is that there is a law, and you're breaking it if you steal the signal. Don't like it? Change the law.

The way he saw it, just like you said, the airwaves are free to receive, and more power to ya if you can figure out how to make use of those waves. You aren't tapping into any equipment or tampering with anyone's property, and affecting no one.

That's false logic, and just because you say so doesn't make it so. The law says it's illegal. You cannot justify an illegal action just because you are not physically trespassing onto their physical property in order to steal. How about trademark law? I don't need to walk onto Coca-Cola's property to infringe their trademark. If I copy it, even crudely with a big red crayon, and I use it in anything else, I've infringed upon the trademark. Case closed.

But finally, they couldn't stop the people out there from getting it free, and they went out of business. They had a flawed business model, but wanted to blame everyone but themselves. In the end, they lost, because you can't just arbitarily decide you don't like the sale of common electronic components.

I hardly think satellite transmission signals constitute a "failed business model." And since when does a "failed business model" give anyone the right to steal? "Yes, officer, they were charging way too much for TVs, no one was buying any, so since it was a failed business model I decided to help myself to one." Sorry, real life doesn't work that way.

They made an algorithm that apparentely wasn't too hard to crack (CSS) and then when someone cracks it, they sue him for being intelligent enough to break it.

No, charges were brought against him for knowingly and intentionally circumventing a copy protection scheme. Whether they could prove it in his case is beside the point. So your test of legality is that if they didn't make it too difficult to steal, you are therefore justified in stealing it? "That's right officer. He turned his back and I took the Rolex. Not my fault he didn't protect it better! That's not stealing." Hmm mmm. Right.

People, don't confuse your opinion of what's right and what's wrong with the facts - the fact is that the unauthorized interception of satellite signals is against the law. Look it up. Justify it all you want with illogical arguments about not tapping their lines, etc. I'm sure the courts will buy your excuse.

If they put it out there, unscrambled, so that anyone with legal equipment can pick it up, then you are 100% correct. But this guy had a descrambler to steal the signals, signals he was not authorized to receive and did not pay to receive.

You don't like the law? Fine. Change it. Good luck.

31 posts and a very credible response. I agree with this poster.

The army of darkness has arrived. Heads up moderators!

[pacmania_2001]

I'm still waiting for the link between Russell William Sprague and the Al Qaida terrorist network.

[MOVIEGEEK]

"Stealing movies is tantamount to taking money out of the pockets of everyone involved with the film industry,"

A bit hypocritical since the film industry has been taking money out of OUR pockets for decades.

[FOO]

You make no point. Of course if there's a law that says
I can't stand on my head in public , I should expect to get busted
for doing it.
And for being Jewish in 1940
and for being a witch in 17xx
and for ... whatever
I KNOW there's a law against it , I claim it's unreasonable
and I will break it . I have the same respect for the law
as a I do for the pope.