Fast And Furious Pirate Jailed For 33 Months

A Midlands man filmed the blockbuster in a cinema and distributed it, costing a major Hollywood studio almost £2.5m.
http://www.digital-forums.com/attach...id=29117&stc=1
A computer programmer who filmed Fast & Furious 6 from the back of a cinema then uploaded it to the internet has been jailed for almost three years.
The pirate copy of the film was downloaded 779,000 times, costing one of Hollywood's biggest film-makers almost £2.5m.
Philip Danks, 25, from Walsall, West Midlands, was the first person in the world to record and distribute the movie illegally after filming it on its release day on May 17 last year.
A court heard a special "webwatch" team - set up by LA-based Universal Pictures because the film was so valuable - spotted his copy spreading across the internet.
He was caught when fraud investigators noticed that his online tag 'Thecod3r' attached on the video was identical to his profile on dating website Plenty of Fish.
He was arrested at his home on May 23.
Two days later, he bragged on Facebook: "Seven billion people and I was the first. F*** you Universal Pictures."

http://media.skynews.com/media/image...-1-522x293.jpgDanks boasted on Facebook: "Seven billion people and I was the first" On Thursday, he pleaded guilty to three charges of distributing pirate copies of films and was jailed for 33 months.
The court heard that he made just £1,000 from selling copies of the film for £1.50 - while the cost to Universal was estimated at £2.3m.
Sentencing Recorder Keith Raynor said: "This was bold, arrogant and cocksure offending.
"You approach to the film industry was made clear in the posting you made on Facebook two days after your arrest.
"I accept the personal profit was modest but the real seriousness of this case is the loss caused to the film industry as a whole."
Prosecuting on behalf of the Federation Against Copyright Theft, Ari Alibhai said: "The film was Universal Picture's most significant release of that year with both the biggest production costs and expected revenue.
"The estimated loss to the industry caused by the defendant's actions is conservatively estimated at £2.3m but he did not receive money from the online distribution."
The court heard that although he made money from selling versions of his copy via Facebook or by personal delivery his real motive was "street cred."
Mr Alibhai added: "The first person with a pirated version attracts much kudos. He wanted recognition from the community."
Mr Christopher Loach, defending, said: "He has no real qualifications and is not a man of means.
"He has no substantial assets of any sort and his financial gain has been extremely limited but he was obviously aware that it was a popular film that would be of interest."
Following his arrest, Danks was freed on police bail pending further inquires but continued to offer a dozen films he had copied.
Danks kept people posted on the case through Facebook - but while awaiting sentence he conceded: "Not loking (sic) good"

You think they mentioned £2.5m or was it £2.3m they seem a bit unsure, guess that's a presumption that every single person who downloaded it would have gone to see it that's logical.

Moral of the story is you are way better off if you are going to be a criminal committing mugging, drug dealing or burglary as you will get a far lighter sentence and of course these must be the sort of crimes you don't want to take people off the streets for.

All that said I have zero sympathy as he should know what would happen if he was caught and if he didn't then it serves him right.

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Originally Posted by satzzz

Philip Danks, 25, from Walsall, West Midlands, was the first person in the world to record and distribute the movie illegally after filming it on its release day on May 17 last year.

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No, he was the first to cluck like a fucking chicken about it on his personal facebook account.

Fucking muppet!

"Thecod3r"

Lmfao...

Well the cunt won't have any trouble finding "dates" in the can for the next 3 years. Should change his alias to "TheG4per"

There are plenty like him about, not sure how many here look at local Facebook selling groups but they are littered with people selling cigarettes, tobacco, copy football shirts, handbags, DVD's, perfume etc and these people must get busted as it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

They also neglect to mention in these cases or often do that they use asset recovery under the proceeds of crime so can just guesstimate how much the person has made and seize assets to the value and as this is a civil action the burden is on the 'criminal' to prove otherwise but also backed with heavy prison sentences should it not be paid/recovered which are set so a Judge has no discretion something like fail to repay £8,000 you get between 12-18 months prison.

He should have got an extra 12 months for being an ugly cunt :)

I had to turn off BBC News this morning. First time I've had it on for months and within 5 minutes this story came on. They were talking like he had been dropping bombs on a load of kids. It's ridiculous. How many people were killed? 3 fucking years...!

At the same time. It serves these idiots, who sell so brazenly, right.

It's because of cunts like this that Tom Cruise's next pay day will only be $25m instead of $27.5m. Fucker should be doing a 10 stretch.

Ffs you wouldn't get that for possession of a firearm even though its meant to be min 5 years.

My experience with trading standards (properties misdescription act) was that unless its bow tied for them they can't be bothered but parking tickets etc.

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Originally Posted by Bald Bouncer

There are plenty like him about, not sure how many here look at local Facebook selling groups but they are littered with people selling cigarettes, tobacco, copy football shirts, handbags, DVD's, perfume etc and these people must get busted as it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

They also neglect to mention in these cases or often do that they use asset recovery under the proceeds of crime so can just guesstimate how much the person has made and seize assets to the value and as this is a civil action the burden is on the 'criminal' to prove otherwise but also backed with heavy prison sentences should it not be paid/recovered which are set so a Judge has no discretion something like fail to repay £8,000 you get between 12-18 months prison.

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i no what you meen about selling on facebook, there are a few sellers i see on there asking to be caught.
some people think they are invincible from arrest
anyways i stil get my cheap clothing from them

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Originally Posted by blacksheep

Ffs you wouldn't get that for possession of a firearm even though its meant to be min 5 years.

My experience with trading standards (properties misdescription act) was that unless its bow tied for them they can't be bothered but parking tickets etc.

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Thing that gets me is there are kiddy fiddlers out there getting less time than he got. Something is seriously fucked with the sentencing in this country.

Does anyone know why this is?

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Originally Posted by rookie

Thing that gets me is there are kiddy fiddlers out there getting less time than he got. Something is seriously fucked with the sentencing in this country.

Does anyone know why this is?

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Because no big business or Government revenue is lost when kids are fiddled or 'important' people affected

When will people understand that anything you put on Facebook can and will be used against you lol