FBI Makes Arrest in Oscar Screener Piracy
FBI Traces Bootlegging, Illegal Internet Distribution of Films to Academy Award Member
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES Jan. 22 — FBI agents said Thursday they have traced the bootlegging and illegal Internet distribution of films such as "The Last Samurai" to an Academy Award member, and arrested a second man in connection with the case.
Carmine Caridi admitted in an affidavit released Thursday that he sent every so-called "screener" videotape he's received for the past three years to an acquaintance in the Chicago area, Russell W. Sprague.
Sprague, 51, was arrested at his home in Homewood, Ill., on Thursday after a search of his home turned up hundreds of films, many of which had been converted to DVD format and had the Academy's encryption code erased, along with an array of duplicating equipment, authorities said.
Sprague is charged with criminal copyright infringement and is to appear in a federal court in Chicago on Friday, officials said.
Caridi, 69, said he sent VHS copies of about 60 movies he received each year to Sprague via Federal Express. Once Sprague made a copy, he'd send them back to Caridi, the FBI said.
Caridi, who also has appeared in movies such as "The Godfather: Part II" and "The Godfather: Part III," said he received no money for the films.
Attempts to contact Caridi, who has not been charged, were not immediately successful.
The Motion Picture Association of America, which represents studios, last year banned the distribution of screener DVDs and videotapes over concerns about bootlegging, but partly lifted the ban after complaints from filmmakers, producers and independent production companies.
The studios changed the policy in October to allow the shipment of encoded videocassettes to Academy Award voters only. A federal judge in December, however, granted a temporary injunction lifting the screener ban in a lawsuit brought by independent production companies, which argued the policy put them at a disadvantage for awards. The studios then sent screener tapes to thousands of other awards voters.
The academy required its 5,803 eligible Oscar voters to sign forms promising to protect their screener tapes. About 80 percent of voters signed and returned the forms, which include a stipulation that a violation is grounds for expulsion from the academy.
