Express & Star

Jail term 'important' for Fast & Furious pirate who cost Hollywood £2.3m

Film industry and copyright chiefs today welcomed the jail sentence handed to a man who cost Universal Pictures an estimated £2.3 million by being the first person in the world to illegally copy the blockbuster Fast & Furious 6.

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Philip Danks, 25, was given a two-year and nine-month jail sentence at Wolverhampton Crown Court this week after he secretly took a video of the movie at the Showcase Cinema in Walsall on May 17 last year – the day it was released in the UK before being shown anywhere else in the world.

The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), who helped police track town Danks, described the jail term as an 'important sentence' and said people's jobs had been put at risk by what he had done.

FACT director general Kieron Sharp, said: "Thousands of people are employed making some of the world's most famous and popular films. Their livelihoods are at risk if a film is unable to create the profits needed to fund future films.

Internet pirate Philip Danks

"This is an important case and an important sentence. Danks was responsible for recording, uploading and distributing the film and was clearly unconcerned at the time about the consequences of his actions, perhaps believing that the internet gave him anonymity.

"We at FACT have shown that we will find and identify people committing criminal offences and ensure that they are properly dealt with through the courts".

Danks, of Livingstone Road, Bloxwich, uploaded the film onto the internet via his personal website Bit Buddy the following day after converting the pirated camcorder version into a digital copy. That copy – which carried his tell-tale 'tag' Thecod3r – was then downloaded free of charge by around 779,000 people in the next four weeks,

Chris Marcich from the Motion Picture Association of America said: "Online copyright infringement represents a significant threat to the continued success of the UK's creative industries and to the continued development of legal sources of film and TV content. It is important that those making money on the back of other people's hard work and creativity, paying nothing back into the creative economy, are held accountable."

Five days after the recording was made Danks was arrested by West Midlands Police.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard that despite his arrest Danks continued to copy, sell and distribute illegal copies of films.The 25-year-old admitted three charges of distributing pirate copies of films.

See also:

Jailed: The Fast & Furious film pirate who cost Hollywood £2.3m

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