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Man Arrested By Feds For Uploading 'Deadpool' To His Facebook Page
(Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox)
A Fresno man was arrested Tuesday by federal authorities and charged with copyright infringement for uploading a Marvel Comics movie online, reports the L.A. Times.
Trevon Maurice Franklin, 21, is accused of uploading 2016's Deadpool to Facebook just eight days after the movie's wide release. Once online, more than 5 million people watched the film. He is accused of reproducing and circulating at least 10 copies of the movie, according to an indictment.
As reported at the Visalia Times-Delta, Franklin has been charged in a one-count indictment with reproducing and distributing a copyrighted work—a felony that carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison.
Deadpool would end up bringing in $783 million globally, making it the highest-grossing rated R movie of all time, according to Deadline. Though, domestically, that title goes to The Passion Of The Christ.
As reported at the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is no stranger to the topic of copyright infringement when it comes to videos. In response to the complaints of content creators who said their videos were being duplicated on Facebook, the company unveiled "video matching technology" in 2015 that allows it to track down videos that were already published by another party.
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