Academy screener bootlegger SUED

[DaBarrister]

Two major movie studios sued an actor and longtime member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who allegedly leaked "screener" copies of movies that were then reproduced and distributed on the Internet.

Columbia Pictures Industries and Warner Bros. filed the lawsuits against Carmine Caridi, a 20-year Academy member who has appeared in "The Godfather: Part II" and "NYPD Blue."

Caridi, 70, has told investigators he sent VHS copies of about 60 movies he received each year to his Illinois friend, 51-year-old Russell Sprague, who used a software program to convert the VHS tape into DVD format and then sent the original tapes back to Caridi, authorities said.

Okay, the floor is now open to all who want to defend the actions of these two upstanding members/hangers on of the film industry.

Dollars to donuts that Caridi signed a contract agreeing not to copy, lend, trade or sell the movies.

Original article: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040129/D80CDF9O0.html

[triphop]

(AP) Academy employees Doug Stewart, left, and Bill Gates react as they read the list of nominees for...

Sprague is in for the "high jump", no doubt.

Caridi, OTOH, probably has deniability: I was just sending them to my old friend, I honestly had no idea he was uploading them to the web, your Honor!!

[RabidDog]

Caridi, well, he's got connections you know.. Tony and some of de boys can help him out..
?? He lent out some video tapes, not exactly a federal crime

[Moloko_Plus]

[quote="DaBarrister"]

Dollars to donuts that Caridi signed a contract agreeing not to copy, lend, trade or sell the movies.

Original article: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040129/D80CDF9O0.html

He did sign the agreement, him and 80% of the other academy voters. Im not going to defend him, since none of us know what his intentions REALLY were. Thats the bottom line. If he contributed to them being SOLD (which there are no official reports of) then I have no sympathy for him. If he lent them innocently to the offender without any knowledge of piracy, then I think he should be let off the hook. Obviously that's not going to happen, the MPAA is going to string him up like a pinata, beat him to a pulp, then mount his head on a stake at the town square to serve as a warning to other offenders, since this is the first of its kind. They've been on their hands and knees waiting to catch someone, even if it really is just a 70 year old retired actor. If Mr. Carridi knew his friend was duplicating them and having them posted onto the internet and did absolutely nothing to stop it...Then thats a grey area, since there was no profit made and he didnt really know the consequences (due to his age).

A lot of things could have happened on his end. Officially, theres not much, the accusation is that he just lent them out then got them back without any knowledge of them being posted on the internet. And there are no reports of him profitting by it. So I have No Opinion about this, since I wasnt there to know what happened.

[pacmania_2001]

My guess is that Caridi will reach an out of court settlement with the MPAA, be thrown out of the academy and other organisations whilst Sprague will take the full brunt.

[ManixTT]

Hmmm. Personally, I have no sympathy for this guy. Regardless of his intentions, he shouldn't be sending screeners to any friends because he's an Academy voter. IMHO hope the prosecution succeeds.
I think leaked screeners are the number one source of pirated films and should be the primary target of MPAA or whoever. This goes for leaked pre-released music as well. My take is simple. Stop the leaks instead of concentrating on sueing 'file sharers'. If the source dwindles, wouldn't that solve most of the problem more efficiently?

[freestyler]

Sooner or later it'll hit retail - THEN it'll be ripped. The cat's out of the bag.

[Vanderlow]

Bad thing is this will deter the Academy from sending screeners out which will hurt independent films from getting Academy consideration.