A university graduate who recorded Hollywood blockbusters onto his Apple iPhone, to later upload them online, has been jailed for 6 months.
Anti-piracy group the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) called the decision 'ground breaking,' the first time anyone has been jailed for recording, then uploading, the latest cinema releases.
Emmanuel Nimley, admitted to ten charges, including recording and distributing The Bounty Hunter, The Crazies, Alice In Wonderland and Green Zone after being caught with his iPhone in a local Vue cinema.
Such recordings are known as Cam recordings, often recorded in a cinema using a digital video camera or now mobile phone, they are available online within hours of a film being released. The quality is generally thought to be poor, badly cropped and shot at an angle, with echoey audio and cinema goers often blocking the view.
"It may be suggested in some quarters especially among young people that this is harmless fun and film in the cinema is fair game," said Judge John Anderson sentencing Nimley. "It is not. Your action was a deliberate cheat on the film companies and the film industry."
"Fraudulently making and distribution of copies for whatever purpose and whatever quality has the effect of depriving the film industry of revenue. In current society it's difficult to imagine an audience wider than the internet having access to such illegal material. Your dishonesty strikes at the heart of that industry."
"This was deliberately planned and carefully executed offending which I have no doubt would have continued if you had not been caught. I accept that there has been no fraudulent gain for you and I accept your motivation was for self-glory."
Nimley, from Harrow, London, made no money from the recordings.
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