Richard Humphrey, 26, of North Ridgeville, Ohio was sentenced to 29 months in prison for selling pirated copies of movies in 2010. Once in prison, Humphrey was a bit surprised when he sat with other prisonsoners watching clearly pirated movies shown by the state. One can certainly understand his confusion, particularly when it came out that prison officials had knowingly used pirated movies like “Ride Along” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” before they were released on DVD.
Here is the Justice Department press release on Humphrey’s conviction.
Humphrey was sent to prison for a parole violation after it was shown that he had sexual contact with a minor (He insisted that the girl told him that she was 21 years old and that he had no reason to believe that she was a minor since she would drive to his home and bring beer). Once in prison, he watched the movies and asked why the Lorain Correctional Institution could show such movies when he was subject to a criminal charge for copyright infringement in selling such downloaded movies. Of course, the prison is not selling the movies though it is saving money that would have had to be spent on buying such movies.
A spokesperson said that officials were indeed aware that the movies were pirated and that the matter is being investigated.
Humphrey said he saw “Ride Along” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” three or four times while he was in an intake pod at the start of his sentence.
The federal law is quite harsh on such criminal sanctions, which seem to be expanding every year as lobbyists push through more and more draconian laws. The federal code states:
U.S. Code › Title 17 › Chapter 5 › § 506
17 U.S. Code § 506 – Criminal offenses(a) Criminal Infringement.—
(1) In general.— Any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed—
(A) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain;
(B) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180–day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000; or
(C) by the distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution, by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial distribution.
Note the “or” after subsection B. Thus, it does not have to be done for “commercial advantage” if there is a total retail value of more than $1000. Multiple showings of different movies could well meet that definition. If the prosecutors are unsure, there is a guy at the prison who has a bit of experience in the area.
Source: Cleveland
Great song Al.
How did those illegal movies get into our pockets???
This is all that I remember about my time in the state of Ohio:
“Ohio”
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
That’s abusive!!!
Holder is sure it is racist, but the courts have supported him.
There should be a good faith belief if someone has sex with someone underage. If a female, or male, states they are 18 or older, and offers general proof (such as ability to buy alcohol or even have an I.D. that shows such an age), the defendant should be able to show that In a trial. For some reason, they can’t. If this guy actually believed that the girl was of age, he should have been able to use that as a defense.
David – Sheriff Joe makes them watch either the cooking channel or religious channel.
It says a lot about how jaded we’ve become in our culture that no one has even stopped to consider the fact that forcing people to watch Ride Along clearly constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
Gotta admit it has a deterrent effect on me though.
imagine how that poor guy in there for sodomy feels
Paul, That press conference yesterday about charging 4 Chinese military w/ espionage hacking of US business interests was a dog and pony show w/ Eric Holder and a couple US Attorneys bucking up for the camera. Those Chinese guys indicted will NEVER stand trial. More horseshit from Holder’s DOJ.
pete – sodomy is no longer a crime. If someone is in jail for sodomy, they are going to soon be rich.
It would have been even funnier if the movies they showed were evidence from his own trial.
Oh, the irony. The only fair thing is for those who obtained the stolen, pirated movies to spend some time as inmates, too. Pirated movies are stolen property. Sometimes poor quality movies get out, not the final cut, and it can really harm the movie’s profits (such as The Incredible Hulk.)
Karen – The Incredible Hulk deserved to be harmed. The stuff from China is first-rate, final cut. Not sure where they are getting it, but since the US is now charging the Chinese with digital espionage, maybe that unit is doing it and doing some self-funding.
Ohio: Pirate Territory. Fly over and flush.
Ah, yes! The tragedy of the human comedy?
One would think the motion picture studios would insist illegal copies be destroyed.
Lrobby99 – they can insist all they want, but if they are buying them on the street, what can the studios do. They can do after the sellers, but many of the sellers/peddlers move around a lot, so they are hard to keep up with.
Maybe these were seized movies in some court cases and then instead of being destroyed as contraband, they were sent to the prison for use inside the walls. Seized property is a whole other world of “law enforcement privilege”.
s pimpernel – I would think if they were ‘seized property’ they would be in some cops’ collection.
+1 Darren. While we do show first run movies to our prisoners, we do, in the interest of saving the taxpayers money, use pirated copies. Wow.
This entire mess could have been avoided by the jail if they would have sent one of the officers over to a Goodwill or St. Vincent de Paul store and bought a basket of used DVDs for fifty dollars.
The county jail is not a theater and I don’t see the need to show them first run movies there because, well, they’re inmates. Plus, most would be happy to watch more or less any movie. It’s much better than the staring at the walls of a holding cell.
Daren – some of them are probably there because they cannot make bail yet. They are prisoners, but not convicted.
Darren – we will investigate. Then in a month when the hubbub dies down the pirated dvds will be back. They are usually our in China two to three months before release in the US screen. Although, Game of Thrones has been harder to get in China, for some reason.
When you are the Stasi you can do as you wish.
Somehow, I envision nothing will be done at the corrections center except perhaps sweeping it under the rug. The old “we are investigating” claim I am always skeptical. It always seems to be much longer when involving public officials and often it just fizzles away.
Would the “defense” sometimes framed as “it is ok when we do it” work before a jury?
Do what I say not what I do. They live by different laws then the rest of us. There is no other way to explain this.