Year on Lam Ends for Suspected Film Pirate

Johnny Ray Gasca was just days away from standing trial when he gave his lawyer the slip at a Longs Drugstore in West Los Angeles. He said he needed to buy some cold medicine.

For more than a year, Hollywood’s alleged prince of piracy eluded capture in much the same way he had bedeviled studios with his ability to secretly videotape movies during advance screenings, sometimes weeks before the films hit theaters.

On Tuesday, the curtain dropped on Gasca’s long-running stint on the lam. He was arrested by U.S. marshals a coast away from where he allegedly plied his trade with a camcorder and a knack for schmoozing his way into studio screenings.

Acting on an anonymous tip, authorities found him at a Travelers Inn in Kissimmee, Fla., outside Orlando. A spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service said Gasca was copying a movie in his room, alongside recording devices and boxes of DVDs. He was arraigned in federal court and is scheduled to be returned to Los Angeles, where he faces charges of copyright infringement, witness intimidation, economic extortion and using a false name.

Gasca’s apprehension was so peaceful that the motel manager said he slept through it.

“I can’t tell you any details because I was deep in a dream when they arrested him,” said Reggie Mutasa. “It seemed to be all the talk when I woke up.”

Gasca was the first person charged by the federal government for making a camcorder copy of a film. Although he was just one purported player in a problem that studios say costs the industry $3.5 billion a year, few could match Gasca’s alleged prowess in obtaining high-quality copies for duplication and downloading.

Gasca’s alleged success exposed gaping holes in the security of the very studios that had complained bitterly that legislators and law enforcement officials were not acting aggressively enough to combat piracy.

Because of the alleged actions of Gasca and a handful of other professionals who are believed to copy movies with camcorders, studios now search audiences before screenings. Studios also have pressured theater owners to give employees night vision goggles and to offer rewards to anyone who catches people with camcorders. Through digital fingerprints, studios now can pinpoint theaters where camcorder artists operate. And Congress is expected to pass new laws aimed at illegal videotaping.

Ken McGuire, the supervisory agent for the FBI’s cyber crimes unit in Los Angeles, called the 35-year-old Gasca “the poster boy” for the government’s crackdown on piracy, which has included the creation of an international task force.

According to McGuire, Gasca left nothing to chance in a quest for high-quality copies. He would enlist people to sit in front of and beside him so no one would stand and ruin his clear shot at screen, and he designed a rig to strap his camera to the armchair, minimizing movement, McGuire said.

Officials of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, the entertainment industry’s lobbying arm, began circulating Gasca’s photo at screenings. His first arrest came in September 2003, when he allegedly was caught in the act by a theater employee at a Paramount Pictures screening of “The Core.” He was arrested by Burbank police and charged with misdemeanor burglary, according to the court file. After being released on bond, he was nabbed about four months later at a Thousand Oaks theater allegedly taping a Revolution Studios preview of the Adam Sandler film “Anger Management.”

When federal agents a few months later searched Gasca’s apartment, they seized video recording equipment, 15 VCRs linked together to make multiple copies from one master tape and a belt with a concealed video camera, court records show.

They also discovered a diary chronicling his alleged piracy operations and purported encounters with celebrities. He boasted of making up to $4,000 a week by selling bootleg movies on the Internet and of alleged encounters with such Hollywood insiders as producer Joel Silver and actor Tobey Maguire. He also wrote about wanting to sell a screenplay on his exploits, called “Between Heaven and Hell.”

Gasca confessed to the agents that he had pirated movies not only in Los Angeles but also in New York -- including “Spider-Man” and “Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace,” according to court records. He allegedly told agents that he had attended 25 to 30 screenings in L.A. and used a camcorder to copy six of the movies.

He was charged and, on the day he fled, had been placed in his lawyer’s custody so the two could discuss legal strategy.

Gasca’s brushes with the law date back to at least 1986, when he was convicted of grand larceny and possession of stolen property. In 1992, he was convicted of attempted murder and served time at the prison in New York. According to the court file, he shot a friend during an argument over money.

On Tuesday, with Gasca back in custody, Hollywood’s chief spokesman offered a few words about the case to people who bootleg movies or download them from the Internet.

“Today’s arrest sends a clear message to those engaging in copyright theft: ... There is nowhere to hide,” said MPAA President Dan Glickman. “And you will be caught.”