Man Is Charged in Movie Piracy

In the latest crackdown on “screener” piracy, federal authorities Friday charged a Corona man with criminal copyright infringement for allegedly uploading a copy of the Miramax film “Finding Neverland” to one of the Internet’s leading movie piracy groups.

A criminal complaint accuses Rolyn Abugan, 24, of copying a DVD sent to a Producers Guild of America member as part of Miramax’s Oscar campaign. Abugan allegedly delivered a copy to the Centropy online movie group in exchange for access to other pirated films, an FBI affidavit states.

If convicted, Abugan faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine. He could not be reached for comment.

Screeners are prized in the piracy scene because they provide nearly pristine picture and sound quality long before the retail DVD of a movie is released.

The major Hollywood studios launched a campaign against screener piracy in 2003. After trying in vain to ban the distribution of screeners – a ban that Miramax resisted – the studios’ main strategy has been to add watermarks to their promotional discs and tapes, making it easier to trace the leaks and punish the leakers.

Although a large number of screeners continue to make their way onto the Net, Abugan appears to be just the second person to be charged with screener piracy since the campaign began. The first, Russell Sprague, pleaded guilty last year. He was found dead in a federal jail cell in Los Angeles on Monday, shortly before his scheduled sentencing.

According to the FBI affidavit, investigators traced Centropy’s copy of “Finding Neverland” to Producers Guild member Shawna Chance of West Hollywood. Chance could not play the disc on her DVD player – the watermarked discs aren’t compatible with some older models – so her boyfriend asked a co-worker to copy the movie onto a disc that she could play.

The co-worker gave the disc to Abugan, who made copies for Chance and, without her knowledge, for Centropy, which had assured him that it could remove watermarks, the affidavit alleges.