Third Conviction For Camcording Movies In A Theater and Third Conviction For Violating The Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Cyber Crime, Aug 06, 2007

SAN JOSE – United States Attorney Scott N. Schools announced that as part of the ongoing prosecution arising out of Operation Copycat, another individual was convicted for his role in assisting with the unauthorized camcording of movies in a theater and for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, bringing the total number of convictions to thirty-six in the case. Thirty-eight persons have been charged to date.

Arshad Madhani, 21, of Duluth, Georgia, was the third person in the case to be convicted for violating a statute which now prohibits the unauthorized copying of a movie in a movie theater using camcorder equipment. At the plea hearing, he admitted that he obtained and distributed many pre-release and new release movies and software, and admitted aiding and directing others in the camming of the following movies from movie theaters: "Elizabethtown," "Firewall," "Benchwarmers," "The Sentinel," "Akeelah and the Bee," "Over The Hedge," "XMen," "Just My Luck," "The Breakup," "Saving Shiloh," "See No Evil," "Cars," "Click," "You Me and Dupree," "Lady in the Water," "Monster House," "Been Rich All My Life," and "Agnes and His Brothers." The infringed movies were made available on a warez computer network accessible to others via the Internet. Defendant Madhani was paid for supplying prerelease movies to others on the warez site, usually through an online account.

In his plea agreement, he admitted that he fulfilled distinct warez roles including serving as (1) a "cammer" by willfully using, and directing others in the use of, audiovisual recording device (such as a camcorder) to make an unauthorized copy of a motion picture that was protected by the copyright laws; (2) an "encoder" (also sometimes referred to as "ripper" and "cracker") by circumventing the technological measures and protections of copyrighted works on the DVDs to prevent unauthorized access and copying and removing and altering copyright management information; and (3) a "racer" by trying to be among the first to obtain prerelease and new release movies before they were publicly available and posting and sharing them with others on the Internet.

Defendant Madhani also admitted violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by removing copyright management information (including the title and other information identifying the copyrighted work, the name of, and other identifying information about, the author of a work, and identifying numbers and symbols referring to the identifying information). This information was removed to induce, enable, facilitate, and conceal further reproduction and distribution of the cammed movie on the Internet. He acknowledged that he knew that if this information had been retained on the cammed movie, then others in the distribution chain could have discovered the camming and infringing of the movies. With the identifying information removed, it would be more difficult to discover their role. Once the copyright management information was removed, he distributed copies of the cammed movies to others on the Internet.