Oscar Pirate Caught

After the ongoing Hollywood uproar concerning feature film pirating, the FBI has cornered its first suspect. A man from the Chicago suburb of Homewood, IL, was arrested Thursday for making illegal copies of first-run films and helping post them on the Internet.

Russell Sprague appeared in front of a U.S. magistrate judge on Friday and was charged for violating the copyrights of several films including The Last Samurai, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and The Matrix Revolutions. Additional charges include the violation of making equipment designed to illegally download and decode satellite-to-home television signals. Sprague must post a $25,000 bond by the hearing that is to be held on Monday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney, Juliet Sorensen, said authorities will attempt to set a trial for Sprague in Los Angeles. Possible charges include three-to-five-year maximum prison sentences and up to $500,000 in fines.

The 51-year-old man claims that he is not guilty of this alleged crime. "No one should make money on someone else's copyrighted work; I agree with that philosophy," Sprague said. "But when they make an example out of me, that's over the top."

Sprague did, however, admit that he would make up to six duplicates of each screener DVD to distribute to family members or friends, according to an FBI affadavit. He also gave copies to another person in exchange for access to a Federal Express shipping account.

Sprague said he would typically send the original screeners, along with a few copies, back to Caridi. This arrest comes in the wake of recent controversy. In late September, the Motion Picture Association of America expressed concerns of sending screeners, citing a $3,000 downfall in revenue each year due to movie piracy. Screeners are typically sent to Academy members to make choices when voting and to boost the film's publicity and box-office potential. Many Academy voters protested the MPAA's attempt to ban screeners, leading the association to finally appease Academy voters by sending out screeners with a special digital watermark technology to trace duplication theft. The technology led the MPAA to Academy member, Carmine Caridi, a 69-year-old actor who has appeared in The Godfather, Part II and NYPD Blue. Sprague, A friend of Caridi's, came to the surface as the suspect, claiming that he only copied the films for Caridi, as he has done for the past three years. Sprague claims that he did not distribute the copies online. Sprague's arrest is the first for copying screeners supplied to Academy Award voters, according to the FBI.