Movie DVD Producer Employee Arrested for Selling Pre-Release Copies – Faces 20 Years in Prison

An employee of a company producing DVD and Blu-ray discs with licensed copies of films has been arrested in the United States. According to the prosecutor’s office, he stole and sold discs with films for more than a year before their official sale, which caused multimillion-dollar losses to copyright holders. For this, he faces 20 years in prison.

Image source: Phil hearing / Unsplash

Federal prosecutors say the man is Steven R. Hale, 37, of Memphis, Tennessee. Investigators believe he stole and then sold numerous copies of Hollywood movies before they were released.

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According to the indictment, Hale sold the stolen copies on an unnamed e-commerce site. Specifically, an official copy of Spider-Man: No Way Home was sold weeks before its official digital and Blu-ray release. The disc was purchased by a pirate group and leaked online, leading to the film being widely distributed in 2022.

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Hale allegedly carried out his illegal activities from February 2021 to March 2022. Pirated copies of the film “Spider-Man: No Way Home” appeared in March 2022. The prosecution does not specify the company where the perpetrator worked, but notes that it distributed films in the American market.

Federal investigators have not specified how Hale was captured. However, in 2023, there were reports of the arrest of leaders of the pirate group EVO, which was behind the release of a pirated copy of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Hale now faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted on two counts of criminal copyright infringement and interstate transportation of stolen goods.