You may recall that last April there was great chagrin at Fox when a near-perfect workprint of WOLVERINE was uploaded a full month before the film’s planned release. The world will never know how much the film’s box office was impacted by this theft, and how much was impacted by the fact it was a pretty weak movie except for the hot guy-on-guy action.
Now, after an intensive nine-month investigation, a 47-year-old Bronx man has been charged:
Gilberto Sanchez, 47, was arrested at his home at about 6 a.m., according to Ms. Eimiller. Mr. Sanchez was indicted last Thursday by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on charges of uploading the unfinished copy of the movie to a Web site, Megaupload.com, last spring.
If convicted, Mr. Sanchez faces three years in prison and a $250,000 fine or twice the gross gain or gross loss attributable to the offense, whichever is greater, according to the United States attorney’s office in Los Angeles. Lisa E. Feldman, an assistant attorney in that office’s Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes unit, will prosecute the case. She said that Mr. Sanchez had been released on bail.
Although Sanchez must face the rule of law, he looks like a patsy in this case — the file in question was traced to an Australian FX house, and that baby didn’t just fly over the Pacific. How did some schmoe from the hood get hold of a WORKPRINT, which only an insider would have access to? Did it fall off the back of a truck?
Hopefully, the hunt for the REAL criminals is ongoing. Too bad O.J. SImpson is in jail, or he could help.
Yeah, this guy is just a link in the chain, not the source.
It was a work print, not a consumer-level print. Unless the guy actually knew someone on the *inside* or had access to the studio’s computers then the *real* criminal is still out there.
Not to say Mr. Sanchez is innocent. After all, drug dealers on my street get their product up the chain, too. I just dislike seeing so much effort go into the lower ranks. Using him to catch bigger fish would be better, but perhaps they don’t have much and they’re using Mr. Sanchez as a poster boy for others.
I would say what I think but this guy made a film about it and did it so much better than I could.
They better arrest the 14 million people that downloaded it too. This is bullshit. The FBI proves itself to be a national joke once again.
“They better arrest the 14 million people that downloaded it too. This is bullshit. The FBI proves itself to be a national joke once again. ”
Just cause it’s easy, just cause it’s something silly like a Wolverine flick does not mean piracy is suddenly legal.
“Just cause it’s easy, just cause it’s something silly like a Wolverine flick does not mean piracy is suddenly legal. ”
Maybe not, but it has been a great tool for levelling the playing field again.
Consumers often feel cheated, and it’s nice to get the chance to do the same in return.
It’s too bad that there can no longer be a civil dialogue about “piracy” anymore. These corporations might have actually learned something from it.
“Hopefully, the hunt for the REAL criminals is ongoing. Too bad O.J. SImpson is in jail, or he could help.”
OH!!! The possibility of ironic news titles….’OJ Slashes for a Slasher!’, etc… ;D
I would object to the notion that the workprint was a “near perfect” copy of the final film. It was anything but, as it was missing quite a few FX shots, especially near the climax.
That said, the film was terrible, and if people ended up not paying for it because they found that out, pirated or not, then I won’t be crying for Fox.
While it would be nice (in a perfect world) to send out 14 million subpenoas I highly doubt our legal system could (or even should) handle it. Currently the pirates have safety in numbers… that is unless you become the lucky one to be the next poster child for the millions, as Mr. Sanchez will be doing.