Man Gets 1 Year Behind Bars For Posting 'X-Men' Film Online
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Gilberto Sanchez, 49, was sentenced Monday in Los Angeles to one year behind bars for violating federal copyright law by uploading a pirated copy of the film "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" to the Internet before the film opened in theaters.
Sanchez, a glass installer and musician from New York, pleaded guilty in March to one federal count of uploading a copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution, a felony that carries a maximum penalty of three years in federal prison.
Sanchez was indicted in December 2009 for uploading an illegal work print of the Hugh Jackman sci-fi thriller to the sharing site Megaupload more than one month prior to its May 2009 release.
Federal prosecutors said the case represented "the single worst case of pre-theatrical release piracy" in the history of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., which owns the copyright to the film.
Sanchez has been called "the poster child" for Internet movie piracy, given all of the aggravating factors that exist in this case. Court papers indicate a prior piracy related conviction.
Sanchez told the New York Times last year that he bought a bootleg DVD of "Wolverine" for $5 on the street in New York and posted a copy on the Hong Kong-based website to gain prestige.
After uploading the movie, Sanchez promotoed the upload by posting links on two publicly available websites, so that anyone who clicked on the links would have access to the movie and be able to download it, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Feldman said.
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