Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: FEDS BUST MAN FOR PIRATING MOVIE AUDIO AT DRIVE-IN THEATER

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Posted by Harold Hallikainen (Member # 5405) on 03-05-2016, 01:02 PM:

Article: https://torrentfreak.com/feds-bust-man-for-pirating-movie-audio-at-drive-in-theater-150304/

Indictment: https://torrentfreak.com/images/sex-tape-audio.pdf

A Pennsylvania man is facing up to five years in prison for recording the audio of several Hollywood movies at a local drive-in theater. The man allegedly worked for a release group and was caught after the MPAA tipped off the theater owner. He now faces up to five years in prison.

One of the upsides of drive-in cinemas is that people are free to chat inside their cars and enjoy a movie privately.

Pirates have a big plus as well, as drive-ins make it much easier to record high quality audio. For this reason, camcorded films are often a combination of indoor video and drive-in audio.

Generally speaking it is very hard to spot someone recording an audio stream in his or her car, but a drive-in near Pittsburgh managed to track one down with help from Hollywood.

The man, Brian Ridley, allegedly recorded audio of the movies “Sex Tape,” “Planes: Fire and Rescue,” and “The Purge” during the summer of 2014.

The 38-year-old man was caught after a tip from the MPAA who asked the theater owner to look out for his license plate, and call the local police if he did.

Following a careful investigation Ridley has recently been indicted (pdf), with the Government describing him as part of a larger conspiracy to release pirated movies on the Internet.

According to the indictment “the audio and video files would be sent over the Internet to a conspirator who would sync the audio and video files together,” after which, “the completed audio/video copies would be placed on the Internet for others to download.”

The other members of the conspiracy are not known, but it is likely that they are part of an established release group.

While Ridley supposedly recorded audio for multiple movies, he is only charged with unauthorized copying of the Cameron Diaz movie “Sex Tape.”

“Sex Tape” was not yet released at the time the audio was allegedly recorded. However, a pirated copy eventually appeared online at the end of July, after Ridley was caught.

During the arrest the authorities seized three SanDisk “Sansa” MP3 Recorders. These devices are typically connected to the drive-in’s audio feed, and presumably contained portions of the pirated audio.

According to court records Ridley has been released on bail and will be arraigned later this month. If found guilty, he faces a maximum prison sentence of three years for copyright infringement and five years for the conspiracy charge.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 03-05-2016, 01:25 PM:

quote:
“Sex Tape” was not yet released at the time the audio was allegedly recorded.

Something doesn't compute.

This guy was arrested for recording the audio of a movie at a drive-in theatre, but the movie was not yet released?

What am I not understanding?

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 03-05-2016, 02:02 PM:

I think they meant to say released on video.

Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 03-05-2016, 02:39 PM:

Wonder if the theater owner got the $5k reward or whatever

Posted by Jay Glaus (Member # 6011) on 03-06-2016, 12:09 AM:

It was my drive in and yes Sex Tape was released in 2014 and no we did not get a reward. That could be because Homeland Security and the MPAA basically called us to be on lookout for certain car and sent a picture of the guy. He would sit in car and record the sound track. I believe he said he got about $2k per film. He said that the reason he came here was we had the best sound of all the drive ins he tried. It has been a great promotion come to where the pirates get their sound track.

Posted by Allan Barnes (Member # 5178) on 03-13-2016, 01:51 AM:

What type of Sound Processor & FM Transmitter do you use at your drive-in theatre ?

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 03-13-2016, 10:17 AM:

quote: Frank Cox
recording the audio of a movie at a drive-in theatre, but the movie was not yet released?

It could happen. In my world, over 95% of the movies I run and see over
the course of a year are press, preview, or 'staff' screenings and haven't been
released yet, and in some cases haven't even been completely finished.
(rough sound mix, credits incomplete or missing entirely, etc)

Most of these are semi-private 'invitation only' events, but some are open to
the the public, & there's usually a heavy studio security presence to keep an
eye on the audience. . . and often, ME too. ( ! )

While it would be very unusual to have such a screening at a drive-in, I
suppose it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility.