New York Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Copyright Violation for Illegally Uploading Copy of X-Men Movie
| U.S. Attorney’s Office March 14, 2011 |
LOS ANGELES—A New York man pleaded guilty this afternoon to violating federal copyright law by unlawfully uploading to the Internet a pirated copy of the movie “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”
Gilberto Sanchez, 48, who resides in The Bronx, pleaded guilty in United States District Court to one count of uploading a copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution, a felony charge that carries a statutory maximum penalty of three years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine or twice the gross gain or gross loss attributable to the offense, whichever is greater.
Sanchez admitted that he uploaded a “workprint” copy of the copyrighted “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” to www.Megaupload.com in March 2009, about one month before the file 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.
Sanchez is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge Margaret M. Morrow on September 19.
This case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.