LOS ANGELES – A New York man who admitted illegally uploading to the Internet a pirated, nearly final “workprint” copy of the movie “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” was sentenced this afternoon to one year in federal prison.
Gilberto Sanchez, 49, who resides in The Bronx and who used screen names that were variations on “skillz,” was sentenced by United States District Judge Margaret M. Morrow, who described the offense as “extremely serious.” In addition to the prison term, Judge Morrow imposed one year of supervised release and numerous computer restrictions.
“The federal prison sentence handed down in this case sends a strong message of deterrence to would-be Internet pirates,” said United States Attorney André Birotte Jr. “The Justice Department will pursue and prosecute persons who seek to steal the intellectual property of this nation.”
Sanchez “uploaded the workprint more than one month before theatrical release, he has a prior conviction for a similar offense, he had been regularly uploading pirated movies for four or five years, and did not appear remorseful after charges were brought,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
Sanchez pleaded guilty in March to one count of uploading a copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution. When he pleaded guilty, Sanchez admitted that he uploaded a “workprint” copy of the copyrighted “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” to http://www.Megaupload.com in March 2009, about one month before the motion picture was released in theaters. After uploading the Wolverine movie, Sanchez publicized 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. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation owns the copyright to the movie.
“Although Fox was able to get defendant’s Wolverine Workprint removed from his Megaupload account within approximately one day, by then, the damage was done and the film had proliferated like wildfire throughout the Internet, resulting in up to millions of infringements,” prosecutors said in court documents.
This case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
'Wolverine' Pirate To Serve Year In Prison
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To lenient of a sentence, it should have been 5 years.
This is ridiculous. THis guy goes to jail for a putting a movie online while they let out real criminals? Christ, no wonder this country is going down the toilet.
Let him steal your work, then we’ll see how you feel about it.
A hefty fine would be more appropriate.
Even if he “stole my work” I would rather have him out of jail than most of the people that are being released on a nearly weekly basis. I’ll take a theif over a rapist any day.
I bet if it was your movie that was uploaded, you’d feel differently about it.
And I’ll bet if you were raped you’d feel different about it too.
Five is too lenient; it should have been 10. Crime has got to stop paying in this country; petty pilferers to Wall Street gamblers.
You are a zealot. Sending this man to jail won’t do anything but destroy his life. Making him pay a financial fine and giving him community service would be better for society. Going to prison is a potential death sentence or damnation to be raped.
As for the Wall Street gamblers, they make billions of dollars, they steal billions of dollars, but they also donate millions of dollars to politicians. Therefore, they will never see the inside of a courtroom.
This is just absurd. “Wolverine” didn’t lose a single dollar to this man’s efforts. It was a poorly reviewed film that still earned millions at the box office.
Liar.
He stole just the same as if he had forced open the door to a bakery & hung a sign on the door that said “Free Doughnuts Take As Many As You Like.”
Stealing is stealing is stealing.
Absolutely true – if there were a way to take donuts and still leave the same number of donuts behind.
IP in this area is a *bit* more complicated than the simpletons crying “Theft! It’s theft!” would have you believe. It’s not so simple.
I agree that community service and a hefty fine would have been far more appropriate.
You think donut stealing should be a federal crime punishable with a year long sentence? Okay.
No. Stealing is stealing. Replicating is copying. Look it up.
Exactly, JD.
Big Tech, their corporate media press, and internet trolls have tried every lame trick in the book to distract from the basic mission here: Stop Online Piracy, which is Theft.
Was this guy made an example? Yes. He is a SECOND TIME OFFENDER who doesn’t think that stealing content is theft. He had one chance to quit, but he couldn’t, b/c he got a rush from being the leaker. That’s why he rushed to publicize his theft, he wanted to enjoy the attention from being the man who literally hijacked the premiere of an event film.
If this guy had shown up with a gun at the premiere and stolen the work print file, no one would waste time defending him now. But instead he used high-tech theft. But online theft is the future of crime… (It’s present now in ways that most don’t realize). Law enforcement has been fighting it hard.
This is a win for law enforcement, and for every author, filmmaker, and musician out there. Theft is theft is theft. If you’re a repeat offender, you can expect actual jail time.
All the trolls and the Big Tech lackeys can keep heaping praise on this clown and on Megaupload.com, which will be vapor soon enough. It’s a Hong Kong company, and they have been hiring big stars to do their promos. If they don’t have rights to those materials, the website will cease to exist. Theft is Theft.
Actually, piracy is copyright infringement, not theft.
Educate yourself.
Insofar as Megaupload, or the thousands of other sites online engaged in piracy … don’t hold your breath.
Average time required to shut down a site: 5-10 years.
Average time required to launch a new site: 5-10 minutes.
We know who wins this battle.
Don’t fight the future.
I’d like to know how he profited from this? He uploaded a movie – he didn’t sell it.
Jesus, you make me embarrassed to admit we work in the same industry.
No, this wasn’t too lenient a sentence. This was far too harsh a sentence. When our “solution” to piracy is prison and attempted censorship of the entire internet, maybe we’re taking light entertainment a little too seriously. Especially when the kind of real criminal behavior that decimates the middle class is what actually hurts our industry – and yet on that topic we’re silent.
So yes, while people are losing their houses, jobs, retirements, and families, let’s crow about how someone getting a year in prison for uploading a mediocre franchise sequel is “to lenient” – because we don’t have enough problems with our audiences (aka customers) thinking that we’re out of touch, greedy bastards already.
So if he uploaded a art house film would you be upset?
If it was something like Days of Heaven, or anything worthy of paying money for I still wouldn’t be, because I’d then go out to buy the product. I see downloading films as a safety check as to whether or not I should really pay for it or not. I’ve seen play of movies where I gladly went out the next day and bought the dvd.
jail should be reserved for violent criminals.
1 year? Big deal. And he has previous charges. Should have gotten the max.
It didn’t hurt the film. The film grossed $179,883,157 in the states and $193,179,707 overseas. I think it helped. People saw the unfinished version online. They went to see the completed work at the
cinema.
Agreed. The people who downloaded the film were basically the target audience. So they’d be happy to pay to see the final version.
I thought it was done on purpose to promote the film.
Whether it hurt the film or not is not the point. People need to take responsibility for their actions. It’s against the law. Period. Just because some of you seem to be in favor of picking and choosing who is prosecuted and who isn’t doesn’t make it any less of an offense. He did it several times in the past. It looked as if the FBI watched him for a while. He wasn’t a first time offender. He needed to pay. Showing no remorse could be one reason why the judge made him serve a year in prison.
When you steal from anyone…you’re breaking the law. Therefore you need to accept your punishment and hopefully learn a valuable lesson. Letting him go with a large fine… may have been appropriate…but either way, he needed to face his crimes.
This needs to be done more often…to send a message that art ( film art in general) is something many people work hard on and to participate in anything illegal concerning it….you deserve to go to jail….Wolverine is not In the Heat of the Night but people worked hard on it….
The the movie made almost $400 million! You’re clueless if you think that his uploading a copy damaged the film’s box office. He didn’t upload the movie to make money.
So, what’s next? Are you going to call on all the college kids to be arrested and sent to prison for sharing music or videos?
Oh, what about sending the grandmother who speeds to prison for 5 years. Isn’t she breaking the law?
This man’s life is ruined. This is stupid.
That movie was so bad, he should have been given a medal for sabotaging it.
In this case, is it piracy or community service? Poor guy was just trying to warn people what a stinker it was.
Did we ever learn where Sanchez got the copy he uploaded?
He says he bought it from a Korean street vendor somewhere in the Bronx.
But it’s never been confirmed, the authorities aren’t telling apparently.
So what..the film was a success. One year is way to much. Funny how Corporate America finds its integrity when “they” even think there bottom line is being affected.
Ah, “So What,” you make me sad, very sad.
Almost all of the people who read this blog work in the filmed-entertainment industry. We work, we get paid for our work, we buy things (like food and gasoline and the right to live in a house or apartment and so forth). Our work exists entirely because the Constitution of the United States establishes a statutory monopoly on the exploitation of creative works for the benefit of the creator(s) of those works.
Whereas a nim-nor like you can single-handedly pen a poorly-written and grammatically-challenged screed about “Corporate America” and “Why Girls Don’t Let Me Touch Their Naughty Parts” and “My Mom Wants Me To Get A Job, But I’m Too Busy Fighting The Man,” making a film or a television show or a video game or a record album takes hundreds of people. Accordingly a nit-wit who ‘steals a movie’ isn’t only stealing from a studio, he or she is stealing from actual humans, regular Americans who work for a living and often drive pickup trucks (Holla, grips!)
So, to some up, you’re not really challenging Stephen Hawking for cognitive abilities there, bud. (“way to much,” “there bottom line”? Come on , now perezhilton.com called and they want you back responding to their postings, so move along now.)
I’m just sayin’…
To some up? Hawking is quite safe today it seems.
You work so hard to compose properly structured sentences, just so you can flaunt your intellectual superiority over someone you disagree with… and then you use the phrase, “to some up”. I’m just sayin’…
Dear “David” and “Amused”:
Fair enough, and nicely done. Homophones can be a pain-in-the-ass, and I hereby apologize to “so what!” for the scorn and derision I exhibit for him or her…and I hope he or she is as amused by your gentle scorn.
I still stand by my point, though.
Our business feeds many mouths. We may not love the system, and the corporate conglomerates that most of us work for may leave much to be desired as both employers and corporate citizens, but market erosion could eventually screw us all. I am actually more than a little embarrassed by my intellectual douch-iness, but the ill-informed “what’s the big deal?” mentality about intellectual property theft drives me out of my mind…which in turn makes me verbally pissy.
Feel me?
well said
Really? They (big producers and heads of companies) don’t care about you – “small ordinary people”. They don’t like piracy because they thinks that at the end they will not have enough money to pay $10-20 millions for those celebrities.
You know what pisses me off? Every time they whine about piracy it’s like they are saying: “People you can’t watch TV shows or movies for free. We have to pay $40 millions dollars per year to Charlie Sheen so that he could do drugs and enjoy his rich life. And we have to pay millions dollars to other movie stars and rappers so that they could buy themselves those $30 millions houses and then show off them on MTV cribs. So you have to pay all those legal money so that they could live their super rich life”.
Stop paying those movie and TV stars so much money. Or don’t say to people that they have to pay for you to spend $300 millions for budget of John Carter or Lone Ranger or Cowboys and Aliens.
Funny how you use the constitution to defend movies but don’t mention how your own government, as we speak is tearing it to shreds. At the rate the US is going the constitution as you know it is going to cease to exist. But I’m sure the government will keep all the protections for corporations while they throw all the humanitarian rights in said constitution out the window. But yeah go on complaining about shallow crappy movies being stolen. I better keep quiet or I might be thrown in jail without a trial for wearing my hooded sweatshirt.
the people who actually make it don’t have any rights to it, the company you are making it for has all the rights. you didn’t lose anything to the guy sharing the video.
1 year is a joke! They should have jailed him and thrown away the key! I have all kinds of problems with Hollywood but this isn’t one of them. This is the equivalent of Grand Larceny and he gets 1 yr?
Really, Larry?
“Throw away the key” A life sentence for uploading a movie???? For a non-violent crime where no other individual was actually touched or harmed???? Shouldn’t you be more concerned with how child molesters and murders get out within 5 years?
You’re just a moron. Maybe we should put you in jail and throw away the key to make sure you don’t spread your idiotic DNA.
Have you ever done time? You clearly don’t know what you’re talking about, or you wouldn’t be so ignorantly judgmental. To lose a year of your life in that environment is a nightmare.
Agreed with lars, I agree that what this man did was theft, and repeated theft at that. He deserves some form of punishment, but to put him in a box next to people who have raped and murdered?
wow talk about hyperbole…it’s a bloody movie for chrissakes.
Life in prison for uploading a movie? You can’t tell me you’ve never illegally downloaded music. That’s stealing. Does that mean every person should be sent to life in prison because of that? By the time that happens we wont have enough room for real criminals. So what..the guy uploaded a movie. It’s not like he’s the first one. If he wouldn’t have admitted it, it wouldn’t have effected your life any different.
I’m sure he’ll pick up some new skillz in prison.
I was tied to this story on CNN when it broke. I’m surprised this is the man they’re charging. He’s a scapegoat, a public figure to prosecute in order to save face. Where did he get the copy? Who ever let it slip, they’re the culprit and they should be held responsible. Does some guy who works at the fx part of Fox really hand this guy, a 49 year old criminal named Sanchez an unfinished copy? TRACE IT BACK TO THE SOURCE BEFORE YOU PROSECUTE!
I agree – the guy who removed it from the studio should be the one to take the heat, or at least be somewhat, responsible. So a staffer who originally received the DVD from their boss, a VIP, loans it to their relative, who then loans it to Sanchez, who uploads it to millions, is not responsible.
Lets all not forget that this didn’t hurt Wolverine’s ability to make box office cash. That horid film made shit-tons of money. It was one of the big summer hits, and Fox is now going to make a third movie. The geeks/nerds go see movies (even shit movies) even when they download them before going to the theater. This whole thing is a crock. Studios are so scared of the internet and with no reason. Big summer movies shouldn’t be afraid, the independents should. Oh.. wait.. Louis CK shot that all to hell by proving that if you have a good product, done small, with a decent price point – you don’t have to worry. Your audience will respect you and reward you for it. If that kid who just got a year in prison had Fox’s lawyers and money behind him, do you think he would have gotten a year behind bars?
also don’t forget that people that work at studios, record companies etc blah blah download stuff as much as the general public.
and as far ‘wolverine’ they should be happy that made as much money as they did considering how underwhelmed or plain disliked the film was large segments of the public.
even after the horrible word of mouth after the leak people still went to see the film. how much would they have made if the film was good ???
another case where pirating supposedly hurt them but they made as much as money as they were gonna make anyway. and they made it on film that plenty thought was a joke. i think the studio won even without this guy getting jail time.
Sanchex committed a crime, but the real crime is that there are some people that make millions off of “Wolverine,” and there are some that make just enough to pay rent on their 2-bedroom apartment. The grips don’t want you to “Holla” at them – they’d like an equal share of the profits.
Grips aren’t risking their careers on movies the way writers, directors, actors and studios (execs, really) are. They deserve to make more than union drivers and electricians. More risk and more responsibility is involved.
I’ll give you the writers and directors. Not so much the actors. Supporting actors are never blamed for a movie’s box office. As for the name players – well you have to have a lot of ‘failures’ to see your asking price drop. How long did Judd Nelson get millions per movie before executives realized he was not a draw, had little or no taste, and minimal talent? You think Mr. Popper’s Penguins has stopped Jim Carrey? But the most jaw dropping idea is that studio executives risk diddly. Oh, sure some middle management drones might get the ax for a box office failure. It is the norm and the reason for the fear that has led to a huge failure of imagination in the business. But the people at the top, they risk nothing. A movie fails they get a golden parachute when let go, and then get hired by another studio within months – usually with a raise. Name the last studio executive who had a major failure that actually suffered for that failure.
WAY too linient!
On the other hand I hope he is released into the general prison population.
Man, that year will seem like a LIFETIME! Ouch!!
Hey Just Sayin,
I work in the industry too and you do not speak for me so stop pretending like your view represents the rest of us. You’re a total suck up to studios and you make me very sad.
I agree with So What. No harm, no foul.
Cool story, bro.
I’m sure they really respect the years of blood, sweat and tears that you’ve contributed to a wide range of film while working as a reader.
A comment from a studio reader will definitely kill the stereotype of the content pirate as some kid who sits at his computer all day.
I think this guy cost the film well over 50 million in box office. He didn’t exactly steal that money but those defending him might think that BP wasn’t responsible for hundreds of thousands of people canceling their coastal vacations last year either…
‘wolverine’ would have done better box office if it came out after x- ‘x-men united’. ‘x-men: the last stand’ definitely cooled audience interest a bit.
another $50 million maybe/maybe not.critics and bad word of mouth from the opening weekend crowd/and bad word of mouth in general could have and likely did kill the chances of more money happening.
nonsense.
Every study indicates otherwise. As I have said in other posts, I do not support his dishonest acts, but it is utterly absurd to argue that the studio lost money.
Studies show that piracy increases ticket sales, not harms it.
“WAY too linient!
On the other hand I hope he is released into the general prison population.
Man, that year will seem like a LIFETIME! Ouch!!
Comment by rocketeuropa —”
You people realize that ALL of Hollywood, EVERY SINGLE STUDIO was built entirely on piracy of Edison’s patents, right?
The reason why Hollywood is where it is, is because it was the furthest place away from Thomas Edison and his patent lawyers!
So please, get off your fukkin high horse. You people act like Hollywood is some sort of Holy Institution that is wholly sound and honorable in all that it does.
The dude uploaded a POS movie that could have done more box office if it had not sucked as bad as it did. Yeah, it was stupid of him to upload the movie, but he was just one of probably thousands of people that uploaded the same file, and he wasn’t the originator of the file, nor the leak.
A year in Federal Prison for an upload while the same Justice Department is running guns to the Mexican Gangs without any consequences is NOT justice.
How did crime “pay” in this instance?
Oh my God, stupidity of people is really no limits; in this business there aren’t just the big production companies, but also many workers, clerks, technicians, etc. these people with this job ensures livelihood of their families. You don’t need of Einstein’s brain to understand this obviousness. Steal and upload a copy of an
unfinished film, a month before it’s released, is equivalent to kill it and who commits a crime should pay. Stop. Obvious there was a leaker inside Fox or someone very close to the studios, Sanchez is just a small fry. Would be interesting to know the name of who stole the original Wolverine workprint, if investigators know who is, of course. This is clearly someone really determined to damaging the movie, a person who has risked directly a lot in order to achieve his purpose. Yes, Sanchez wasn’t even the one who originally stole the movie but probably this man knows more than he has confessed, this is a workprint, not the finished product for movie theaters and it’s not so easy to steal undisturbed a workprint, circumventing security systems and surveillance.
lol. You speak of intelligence, and yet you fail to grasp the issue.
Yes, he committed a crime. Yes, he has to be punished. Yes, it what he did was wrong…
But your hyperbole is laughable. Many studies have been done that show strong evidence that piracy does not effect the profit that the companies earn, except to increase it.
Studies show that piracy creates buzz, which leads to an increase in ticket sales.
This guy actually helped all the clerks, and secretaries, etc that you are so loudly concerned about.
That does not make what he did right. But it does sort of invalidate the vitriol of your comments.
And let’s not forget that Edison, he of the pirated patents, was the original movie pirate.
The real reason why A TRIP TO THE MOON failed and drove George Melies into bankruptcy was not (HUGO notwithstanding) the loss of imagination after World War I. It was that Mr. Edison illegally obtained a copy of Melies’ film from a London exhibitor. When Melies brought his film to the US, planning on recouping his high costs and make a profit, he found that Edison had already shown the film and raked in the money.
Cut to Melies’ films being melted down for shoes…
>>>And let’s not forget that Edison, he of the pirated patents, was the original movie pirate.
You have your history all backward.
The Edison company was the holder of motion picture patents.
Filmmakers escaped to the West where it would be very hard for Edison to enforce those patents.
So every time Hollywood opens its yap about piracy, it should just STFU first and consider that it was *founded by pirates* to begin with.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Trip_to_the_Moon#Distribution
Mike Cane – please read what you are responding to before coming over STFU Hollywood. Edison pirated A Trip to the Moon, by French filmmaker Georges Méliès, released the film in the States, which led to Méliès losing money on it’s production, and his eventual bankruptcy.
You people appear to have never heard of a show trial. One conviction against millions (or possibly billions) of so-called illegal acts daily? Go ahead and be all serious if you think this case matters. This man is being punished because the government is otherwise impotent. A fund should be set up to provide for him and his family as need be.
When America finally revolts, I know that I’d put my effort into breaking this guy out-probably shouldn’t have said that I’ll be getting arrested next week for treason or something
So, how many Wall Street big shots have gone to prison for crashing the economy?
Too bad he wasnt convicted in California. He’d be out in like a week.
But I guess that kind of laughably small sentence is reserved for celebrities like Lohan and Hilton.
Might as well change the name of the country to United Corporations of America, at least then jail time would make sense.
Has it ever occurred to the entertainment industry that maybe its their pricing that encourages piracy? That maybe they need to consider the incomes of the 99% and what is reasonable?
For me, I’ll keep buying Louis CK’s videos for $5, a single song for $.99, or an ebook for under $5, but that is it. I’ll support the independent producers, but not the insatiable 1%.
I am sick of reading about the extraordinary lifestyles of top 1% while 1 in 5 Americans struggle in poverty. This man has his life ruined for a failed movie that still made millions, yet the top 1% never see the inside of courtroom for their thievery against the middle class and corruption of our democracy.
These guys can preen all they like about the verdict, but sooner or later people will wake up and stop enabling the greed addiction. It won’t be piracy that tumbles the entertainment industry – but lack of customers.
Let us not forget the fact that Hollywood studios, producers, directors and writers are not saints or above ripping off someone else’s intellectual property. Anything from scripts, music, and art work
have been stolen from individuals who worked very hard on their intellectual properties only to have some sleaze bags rip them off and rake in millions and sometimes billions of dollars. I don’t see anybody sticking up for these poor people who get ripped off, some of whom have been struggling for years to get a break in the industry.
The studios won’t look at what they call an unsolicited script (a script submitted without an agent or an entertainment attorney) without you signing a release that states you understand that they may at some point produce a script significantly similar to yours, submitted to them after yours. If you sign this release you are giving them carte blanche to steal your story. Don’t do it! Find a way to make your movie without them.
Of course there’s the common and convenient response of “there’s no such thing as an original idea anymore.” To that I say bull shit! Just by drawing on life experience alone, there are still millions of untold, unique and original stories yet to be told.
Let’s start putting the real thieves of intellectual properties in jail and see how they like it. Oh I forgot, they can only be sued if you prove they stole your story, music or art work. No jail time for the power players, oh no, not for them.