24 Uploader Facing Prison After Admitting Causing Fox $4m Losses

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by Enigmax

A Chicago man accused of causing Fox $4m in losses after uploading episodes of the hit show ‘24′ to a YouTube style video hosting site, has pleaded guilty and now faces the prospect of 3 years in jail.

Chicago man, Jorge Romero faced a federal court to answer charges that following a high-profile leak, he uploaded episodes of Fox’s show “24″ before they were officially available. Fox claims his actions caused them losses of $4m. He entered a guilty plea to one count of uploading copyright works.

Although Romero was not responsible for the original leak, in the United States distribution of copyright works before their official release date is a breach of the Family Entertainment Copyright Act and as such, Romero, 25, faces a possible three years in prison.

Prosecutors claim that Romero first downloaded the episodes from a BitTorrent tracker and then went on to upload the episodes to video hosting site, LiveDigital.com. His identity was discovered after News Corp - the owner of Fox TV - sent a subpoena to LiveDigital demanding the uploaders details.

At the time, Fox put out a statement, “We hope it will serve as a powerful warning that uploading copyrighted TV shows and movies to the Internet can be a crime with significant penalties and will be prosecuted as such. Video-hosting sites such as LiveDigital.com and YouTube are not copyright-free zones, and individuals like Jorge Romero who post episodes of television shows, particularly before they are even broadcast for the first time, will face harsh civil and criminal sanctions.”

He will be sentenced on September 10th.

Torrent Freak Source

[myidisbb]

fec act. how freaken stupid could one be. never upload to a website. though i dont believe the $4 million lost cost. i bet it costs fox more to have a 3rd party company looking for stuff online and then using the lawyers to go after him.

its funny but shouldnt screeners be illegal under the fec act? let along the movie rating group. they got caught copying movies too. under fec act moore broke the law too

this is a nasty law. it makes having tv shows that havent went on dvd illegal too. this dirty law could be used to kill anime fan sites that upload jap stuff that isnt in the usa nor ever be in the usa.