On April 1st X-Men Origins: Wolverine was leaked onto the internet a full month before it’s release date. Despite efforts by 20th Century Fox to get it taken down it became a regular on torrent sites and was downloaded over four million times. Fox will never really know how much it cost them, however today the FBI has announced the capture of an individual connected with the leak.
From THR, Esq:
Gilberto Sanchez was arrested at his Bronx, New York home this morning and is expected to go before a magistrate judge later today on charges of violating federal copyright law. According to the FBI, the 47-year-old man was indicted by a Los Angeles federal grand jury last week. A copy of the unsealed grand jury indictment indicates that Sanchez uploaded the film to file sharing network Megaupload.com under an alias. Information on how Sanchez allegedly attained the feature film is still yet unknown. He faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The leak of “Wolverine” more than a month before its official theatrical release early this summer kicked off a firestorm of fury in Hollywood. In May, a News Corp executive estimated that the film had been downloaded four million times and the film topped piracy charts most of the summer.
Regardless of what you though of the film, it’s good to know someone has been punished for what happened. Leaking unfinished movies onto the internet isn’t cool, and it certainly isn’t legal.
