3 Charged With Pirating Best, Worst Films

Three men have been charged with uploading pirated copies of Hollywood movies to the Internet - including two Oscar-nominated films.

A federal grand jury indicted Owen Moody of San Marcos and Derek Hawthorne of Moorpark on Friday in two separate cases of federal copyright violation, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Moody is charged with uploading "Slumdog Millionaire" while Hawthorne is charged with uploading copies of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "Australia."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation told both men to surrender to authorities next week. If convicted, they face three years in prison and a fine of at least $250,000.

Prosecutors say Jack Yates of Porter Ranch was arrested last week for making an illegal copy of "The Love Guru," which he distributed to friends who uploaded the movie.

Yates worked at a company that was hired by Paramount Pictures to make a "screener" copy of the film for "The Tonight Show."

Yates is scheduled to be arraigned March 16. He faces six years in prison because he's also charged with making false statements to the FBI.

The cases against Moody and Hawthorne were investigated by the U.S. Secret Service; the case against Yates is the result of an investigation by the FBI.