Actor Is Fined $600,000 For Role in Movie Piracy

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB110128604066482889,00.html>

The Wall Street Journal


 November 24, 2004 5:05 p.m. EST

 MEDIA & MARKETING


Actor Is Fined $600,000
 For Role in Movie Piracy

A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP
November 24, 2004 5:05 p.m.


LOS ANGELES -- A federal court judge ordered actor Carmine Caridi to pay
$600,000 to two movie studios to resolve allegations that he gave copies of
their films to someone engaged in movie piracy.

In an unrelated piracy case, the Motion Picture Association of America said
a Malaysian man was fined for running a Web site that broadcast pirated
movies.

Mr. Caridi, who is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences, was ordered by Judge Stephen Wilson to pay $150,000 per title for
each of four movies he shared improperly, two each belonging to Time Warner
Inc.'s Warner Bros. Entertainment and Sony Corp.'s Columbia Pictures.

Earlier this year, Mr. Caridi told the Federal Bureau of Investigation
that, as he received screeners -- copies of movies the Academy makes
available to members as they consider which deserve Oscar awards -- he sent
them to an acquaintance in Chicago.

The acquaintance, Russell William Sprague, duplicated them on DVD. The
movies -- hundreds, sent over the course of three years -- wound up on the
Internet. In April he pleaded guilty to one charge of copyright
infringement.

Mr. Caridi, who formerly played a police officer on the TV show "NYPD Blue"
and also appeared in the Godfather II and Godfather III movies, didn't
return a phone call seeking comment.

Separately, a Malaysian man was ordered to pay film studios $23.8 million
for running a Web site that allowed paying members to watch pirated movies,
according to the MPAA.

A federal judge announced the decision against Tan Soo Leong at a hearing
Monday, said John Malcolm, the association's director of world-wide
anti-piracy operations.

Mr. Leong ran the Web site film88.com and a company called MasterSurf Inc.,
which set up computer servers overseas to protect the business from
liability, Mr. Malcolm said.

The MPAA said Mr. Leong previously ran a similar Web site, movie88.com,
which was shut down by officials in Taiwan. Dutch courts also shut down
servers he later set up in Iran and the Netherlands, the association said.

Mr. Malcolm said the judge also ordered Mr. Leong to destroy copies of
copyrighted movies on his Web site.

"This case shows that some people will go to extravagant lengths to
profiteer from pirating movies," he said.


-- 
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
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