BROOKS BARNES
Escalating its efforts to crack down on DVD piracy, Twentieth Century Fox on Thursday filed six lawsuits against several dozen people that the company said had sold DVDs containing an unfinished version of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and other counterfeit Fox titles.
The complaints, filed in United States District Court in Los Angeles, claim that the sellers were caught peddling the discs on Web sites like Craigslist.org, iOffer.com and Sell.com before “Wolverine” was released in theaters on May 1. A copy of the comic book adaptation was leaked onto the Internet on April 1.
Other pirated movies included “Marley & Me,” “Avatar” and “Bride Wars.” In many cases, these sellers were offering movies on disc before the legitimate DVD was released. Fox employees, working under cover, gathered the evidence over the last year.
Although the complaints do not reveal the identity of most of the defendants — these people did not reveal their names in the transactions so Fox will now use subpoenas to obtain the information — it lists the sellers as living in many states. Five people were named: Kenneth Slater of Paxton, Ill.; Valerie Rosales of Stockton, Calif.; Ozy Smith of Oakland, Calif.; John Hegedus of Garfield, N.J.; and David Chung of Chicago.
Among other compensation, Fox may seek $150,000 for each infringement, according to the complaints.
Fox and the F.B.I. are still trying to solve the mystery of how the early version of “Wolverine” made its way to the Web. A New York man, Gilberto Sanchez, was arrested in December on suspicion of illegally distributing an unfinished version on the Internet. Out on bond, Mr. Sanchez has said that he bought a pirated DVD of the unfinished movie for $5 from a street vendor and later made a copy and posted it on megaupload.com.
“This kind of conduct not only violates the law, it’s just plain wrong,” Fox said in a statement on Thursday. “We filed these lawsuits today to protect our creative professionals and the intellectual property they spend years developing.”
While exact figures are difficult to come by, Hollywood estimates it loses several billion dollars to DVD piracy every year. Working with law enforcement agencies around the world, the Motion Picture Association of America seizes tens of millions of counterfeit movie and television discs annually.
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