Sunday - August 07, 2005

Pirates In My Neighborhood?

DANG! I got a real live movie pirate right here in my neighborhood - at least he’s a few miles north of me .... and I didn’t even know it. The pirate in question, is a 19-year-old teenager who has been making “cam-jobs” of first run movies. These “cammers”, as they are called, secretly film movies with hidden cameras and upload them to the internet “warez” groups. This kid, however, is probably going to jail .... for filming (at least what I heard) are two really lousy movies ....

(AP) --A Missouri teenager is the latest to be indicted by a San Jose federal grand jury in a string of prosecutions involving members of a secretive computer-piracy group. Curtis Salisbury, 19, of St. Charles, Mo., was charged Wednesday with using a video recorder to make copies of newly released movies and uploading them to a computer network for distribution. He is the first person to be prosecuted under the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, which was signed by President Bush in April.

Salisbury is charged with conspiracy and copyright infringement for copying two movies, ``The Perfect Man’’ and ``Bewitched.’’ The films were then distributed through ``warez’’ sites on the Internet—secretive, member-only sites where illegal copies of software and pirated entertainment are available for download. He is also accused of downloading ``Madagascar’’ and computer programs sold by Sony and Adobe Systems. He is scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Patricia V. Trumbull in San Jose Aug. 19 at 1:30 p.m.

The maximum penalty faced by Salisbury if convicted is five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for counts of conspiracy and violating the copyright act, and three years and $250,000 for a count of unauthorized recording of movies. Warez is a source of illegally copied computer programs and, more recently, first-run movies and DVDs. It was targeted by the FBI in a two-year undercover Operation Copycat investigation and a larger investigation called Operation Site Down.

In the argot of warez members—pronounced ``wares’’ and derived from the word software—Salisbury is accused of being a ``cammer.’’ Cammers are specialized warez members who record first-run movies with concealed camcorders and then place them on Internet servers after removing data that could be traced. Cammers are entitled to three movie downloads from the illegal sites for every uploaded movie. The indictment states that Salisbury also discussed payment with an unnamed individual.

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/07/2005 at 07:11 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Hollywood •  
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