Man Is Charged Under New U.S. Film Piracy Law
A Missouri man has been accused in an indictment of making video recordings of movies in theaters, the first time someone has been charged under a new federal law outlawing the practice.
Curtis Salisbury, 19, of St. Charles was accused of copying Universal Pictures’ “The Perfect Man” and Columbia Pictures’ “Bewitched” and distributing the movies over the Internet, the U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco said. The indictment Wednesday in San Jose is part of a crackdown on online piracy, officials said.
The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, which was signed into law in April by President Bush, makes it a crime to use recording equipment to copy a movie in a theater. Piracy costs the movie industry about $3.5 billion a year in lost sales, according to the Motion Picture Assn. of America.
“The Perfect Man” opened the weekend of June 19, and “Bewitched” opened a week later.
Salisbury could not be reached for comment.
Federal prosecutors are investigating sites on the Internet used to distribute pirated movies, games and software.
Last month, four people were charged in San Jose with copyright violations as part of a nationwide crackdown on the sites.
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