Recent US Prison Sentences due to Copyright Infringement

Last year the motion picture industry reported $10 billion of revenue at the box office. While slightly down from previous years, a significant decrease in revenues per film occurred. There are many contributing factors to this decrease, but one glaring issue is the loss due to piracy. It’s no secret pirated films are becoming easier to download online, and in many cases are illegally available while the film is showing only in theaters. The film industry has demonstrated it is serious about waging war on copyright infringements. That point was affirmed by the recent sentencing of two U.S. members of the Internet piracy group IMAGiNE. Member Willie Lambert was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $449,514 in restitution. Sean Lovelady was sentenced to 23 months and $7,500 in restitution. Additionally, two other members of the group have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

The HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) in partnership with the IP Task Force were responsible for the investigation and arrests in this case.

Sources: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/November/12-crm-1318.html http://www.hollywood.com/news/The_Box_Office_Year_in_Review_2011/12394979

For more information, please visit our copyright service page.

Klemchuk LLP is an Intellectual Property (IP), Technology, Internet, and Business law firm located in Dallas, TX.  The firm offers comprehensive legal services including litigation and enforcement of all forms of IP as well as registration and licensing of patents, trademarks, trade dress, and copyrights.  The firm also provides a wide range of technology, Internet, e-commerce, and business services including business planning, formation, and financing, mergers and acquisitions, business litigation, data privacy, and domain name dispute resolution.  Additional information about the IP law firm and its IP law attorneys may be found at www.klemchuk.com.

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