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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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Man Pleads Guilty in Internet Piracy Case

A San Marcos man pleaded guilty to violating copyright law July 22 in a Los Angeles federal court for uploading a pirated copy of “Slumdog Millionaire” late last year, according to federal prosecutors.

Owen Moody, 25, admitted he uploaded the hit movie to Web sites called demonoid.com and mininova.org. At the time, the movie was in limited release in domestic theaters and not available on DVD, federal prosecutors said in a press statement.

Moody, who used Internet screen names of “Tranceyo” and “Gizmothekitty,” found the copy of the movie on a Web site called funfile.org. The film had been sent as a “screener” to a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for voting consideration, prosecutors said.

After searching the Internet and realizing the movie was not readily available to the general public, Moody downloaded the film from one web site and then uploaded to another website and created links on two other sites so it was available to the public, prosecutors said.

The charge of uploading a copyrighted work carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or gross loss attributed to the offense, whichever is greater.

Moody is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess Oct. 5.

, Mike Allen

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