maVen Does Not Pass Go For Movie Recording

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://torrentfreak.com/canadian-movie-piracy-maven-sent-to-jail-100317/' target='_blank'>http://torrentfreak.com/canadian-mo...to-jail-100317/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"An FBI investigation into &lsquo;maVen&rsquo; had been running for some time and was handed to the Canadian Police in April 2006. A few months later Geremi Adam was arrested after he allegedly recorded the movies &ldquo;How to Eat Fried Worms&rdquo; and &ldquo;Invincible&rdquo; at a Montreal movie theater."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1269629178.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 0px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>I am taking a deep breath here.&nbsp; What maVen did was illegal.&nbsp; There, I said it.&nbsp; Now I am sure there will be some people up in arms saying that the Geremi Adam, and the rest of maVen, were heros.&nbsp; I&nbsp; will not debate that. &nbsp; Understand that what maVen did was not just file sharing, but actually going into theaters and recording copies of movies and then selling them online or in person.&nbsp; The issue about copying movies, theft vs. infringement, movie companies charge too much, etc, is not relevant.&nbsp; Current law says that what he did, and I do not think anyone involved disputes that, is illegal.&nbsp; Should it be illegal?&nbsp; Is it ethical what he did?&nbsp; That all depends on where you stand and your moral backing, and well, we all rationalize whatever we do; it is a personal choice.&nbsp; But if you dive into the world of movie sharing, be aware that there are dangers big and small, likely and unlikely and not just from people trying to get you to download "special codecs"&nbsp; or mislabeled movies.</p>

[Jason Dunn]

What he did was illegal and unethical, full stop. I'm glad he's going to prison - too bad it's not longer than 2.5 months. I'd have thought 6 months to 1 year would have been more appropriate, but I guess he probably has no previous criminal record.

[Reid Kistler]

One time, proof-of-concept, without any question at all of profit: could understand such an activity getting a few "high fives."

Repetitive activity, plus distribution / sales, clearly takes it out of the "prank" category: don't quite see how someone can claim to be battling Evil Big Business Profit when they are themselves profiting from what amounts to the same activity (distributing films) - - ??

At the same time, reading this article raises a couple of questions:
1) HOW did he (they?) manage to get away with recording in a theater? And
2) Wouldn't the resulting image / sound be extremely poor?

[Hooch Tan]

I agree, the 2.5 month sentence does seem kind of light, but I've been confused about what determines the length of a jail sentence in Canada over the years. At times, they seem lengthy while others seem extraordinarily light.

There is definitely a community that idolizes these kind of people. Just look at the comments at places like TorrentFreak who lament the arrest. From what I've read, there is usually someone in the theater itself who helps out, or is actively participating such as camming straight from the box. There's also been reports that some are quite good in quality, but I sincerely doubt that unless it is a DVD or Bluray rip, it's that good.

[Jason Dunn]

At the same time, reading this article raises a couple of questions:
1) HOW did he (they?) manage to get away with recording in a theater? And
2) Wouldn't the resulting image / sound be extremely poor?

I believe it involves giving the minimum-wage theatre workers a bribe to be ignored, then when set up on a tri-pod at the perfect middle of the theatre, the quality recorded with an HD camera is probably decent enough. The real problem here is Canada's lack of willingness to prosecute people like this...up until now at least.