SAG Member Sentenced & Fined For Leaking Feature Films
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) member who leaked five feature films to The Pirate Bay was sentenced to two years of probation and fined $3,000 today.
Wes DeSoto, 34, pleaded guilty in October to a single federal account of uploading a copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution, reports City News Service. The actor admitted to uploading the following handful of Oscar noms to the Swedish file sharing site while they were still playing in theaters: "Black Swan," "The Fighter," "The King’s Speech," "127 Hours" and "Rabbit Hole."
The bootleg copies in DeSoto's possession were those granted from SAG to members via iTunes. After a Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) piracy officer tipped off FBI agents of the alleged piracy, authorities identified DeSoto as the culprit through digital watermarks in the movies and raided his Los Angeles apartment earlier this year.
