Wolverine Bootlegger Facing Possible Jail Time

Gilberto Sanchez is a very unlucky man: in 2009, he uploaded a bootleg version of the Hugh Jackman technicolor musical X-Men Origins: Wolverine on the internet, which was then downloaded a couple hundred times before being removed. It's the kind of thing that happens every day on torrent sites for just about every movie, but Sanchez made one grave error: he posted the "work print" (unfinished copy) of the movie more than a month before it was released. And now he could be facing up to three years in an adamantium jail.

“I’m a scapegoat for this. I’m gonna get crucified,” Sanchez told the Times. Sanchez bought the movie from an asian man selling bootlegs in his Parkchester neighborhood for five dollars. He couldn't believe how good the quality was, even though there were special effects and music missing: “So we see a string pulling up Hugh Jackman,” he shrugged later. 20th Century Fox, the studio behind the movie, which was a tentpole summer "event" film, was pissed—the FBI tracked Sanchez down two weeks later, and he was arrested. As the News hilariously notes, "The mysterious Asian man remains at large."

Sanchez, a father of one whose parents live with him, pleaded guilty to violating U.S. copyright law last month, and will face sentencing in September; his punishment could range from probation, a slap on the wrist, to a maximum of three years in prison. Sanchez admits he made a "stupid" mistake, and he said he was motivated to post it because of "some sort of Internet prestige thing." Despite the leak, Wolverine went on to gross over $350 million worldwide at the box office, which brings up another point—that movie sucked more than that time Cyclops abandoned his wife and baby to get back in touch with his ex-girlfriend who his wife was cloned from.

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By Ben Yakas in Arts & Entertainment on April 6, 2011 12:22 PM

Comments [rss]

Spirit of 76

This is what happens when amateurs attempt piracy. You have to know what you're doing if you don't want to get caught. Torrents are trackable while you're seeding. Not a good choice. DDL sites like Rapidshare and Megaupload or the hundred others of their ilk are better. Never upload to these sites from your own home connection on the off chance they get subpoenaed and decide to release your IP address. Grab your laptop and do some wardriving for an unsecured hotspot to upload from. Better yet, join one of the pirate groups and just upload one of the RAR files yourself instead of the whole movie.

SFNY

Pssst, Ben: I think you mean "tentpole" for the big film that holds up the summer blockbuster season "tent."

BenYakas

You're right! Thanks.

Donot Friendme

350mil worldwide for No-Mouth-Deadpool? How the fuck did that happen? That movie blew more chunks than a convention for bulimics...

unretrofiedforu

He is another one of the unfortunate collateral damage in the ongoing digitization of society.

I really don't know why it's hard to understand - the sooner you digitize something, the sooner the value of said object goes down.

WesternQueensLand

The irony is/
The makers walk away free/
From criminal flick/
#Haiku

randomtransplant

I'm biased because I watched that copy.

The studio knows DAMN WELL that they have to keep this shit under lock and key.

Usually, they can. They fucked up big time on this one. Guess thats what litigation is for.

ishtar_79

Up to 3 years in jail for this? This country really needs to think about how long we toss people in jail for non-violent crimes.

MrNomer

Are you kidding? A huge international conglomerate could have lost money! I feel safer already.

BottomlessChips

What about the 100s of others that worked on the film?

m015094

They all got paid and some got part of the $30 million in profit that shitty film made.

BottomlessChips

What about the future, though? You're being short-sighted.

The execs see the margins get a little smaller (due to piracy) with film ABC and they trim some people for ABC part II or the next film in the pipeline.

Is that not a fair point and hypothetical?

unretrofiedforu

Aside from the 10-20 people who really got the bulk of the return? I doubt the people receiving those pity salaries working 80+ hrs/wk on the movie really care.

Plus if they did, their beef is with the gov't and not allowing the RIAA to consider 1's + 0's as IP, not piraters.