Chadds Ford Man Pleads Guilty to Copyright Infringement
| U.S. Attorney’s Office January 16, 2013 |
PHILADELPHIA—Michael Moore, 45, of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty today to infringing copyrighted work related to broadcasts of hockey games. Moore admitted that he copied and sold, over the Internet, copyrighted recordings of hockey games, parts of hockey games, and other hockey-related material between May 15, 2006 and November 10, 2006. He also admitted to copyright infringement between 2007 and 2010 as well.
Moore operated the website www.hdhockey.tv, which offered DVDs containing recordings of copyrighted television broadcasts of hockey games and other copyrighted works from the National Hockey League and other professional hockey leagues for $19.99 plus shipping. Moore also operated www.broadstreetbully.com. For $9.95 per month, subscribers to the website could download an unlimited number of video clips of copyrighted television broadcasts of hockey games and other copyrighted works such as team and player profiles from the NHL and other professional hockey leagues. Neither site had the permission of the NHL or any other professional hockey league to reproduce or distribute these recordings. Among the products he sold was an Olympic Games hockey match. When FBI agents searched Moore’s house in 2008, they seized more than 2,000 VHS tapes of copyrighted broadcasts of hockey games and hockey‑related material and commercial‑grade equipment for copying the contents of VHS tapes to DVDs. Also seized was equipment to record satellite broadcasts and equipment to copy multiple DVDs at a time.
U.S. District Court Judge Berle M. Schiller scheduled sentencing for April 15, 2013. Moore faces a maximum statutory sentence of five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000. He has also agreed to forfeit $155,612 in proceeds as well as certain seized items.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Postal Inspection Service and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Albert S. Glenn and Trial Attorney Evan Williams of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section, United States Department of Justice.