SAG Member Pleads Guilty to Leaking 'Black Swan' & Other Features
While many of you out there may have enjoyed illegal downloads of "Black Swan," "The Fighter," "The King’s Speech," "127 Hours" and "Rabbit Hole," the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) member who leaked the feature films to BitTorrent is facing the repercussions. Wes DeSoto has agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal copyright-infringement charge.
The actor's L.A. apartment was raided earlier this year by the FBI after a Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) piracy officer tipped off agents that high-quality digital copies of all five Oscar noms and winners appeared on The Pirate Bay while still delighting theatre-goers. These bootleg copies were review screeners that SAG grants to members via iTunes. Authorities identified DeSoto as the culprit through digital watermarks in the movies.
On Monday DeSoto pleaded guilty on one count of breaching the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, "which makes it a crime, punishable by up to three years in prison, to release a work online that is 'being prepared for commercial distribution,'" reports Wired.
Though federal sentencing guidelines define a probation period of 10 to 16 months, the government recommends three years of probation plus restitution. If sentenced to more than 10 months in custody, DeSoto, per the deal, has the right to appeal.
We hope all the high-fives were worth it, buddy.
