Photo: WENN.com
A man who admittedto uploading a pirated copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine onto the internet in 2009 was sentenced to one year in a US federal prison on Monday (Dec 19).
Gilberto Sanches, of New York, also received one year of supervised release and various restrictions on computer use, in what Judge Margaret Morrow called an "extremely serious" breach of the law.
Sanches posted an unfinished "workprint" of the movie on file-sharing site MegaUpload in March 2009, a full month before the film's release.
20th Century Fox was able to remove the content within 24 hours, but prosecutors claimed: "By then, the damage was done and the film had proliferated like wildfire throughout the Internet, resulting in up to millions of infringements."
US Attorney Andre Birotte, Jr added: "The federal prison sentence handed down in this case sends a strong message of deterrence to would-be Internet .
"The Justice Department will pursue and prosecute persons who seek to steal the intellectual property of this nation."
Sanchez had plead guilty back in March to one count of uploading a copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution.
The worst sci-fi films...
