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Thom Mrozek (213) 894-6947 |
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Release No. 07-073
June 1, 2007
ILLINOIS MAN CHARGED WITH LEAKING SEASON PREMIER OF POPULAR TELEVISION SHOW BY UPLOADING TO THE INTERNET
A Chicago man was named today in a federal criminal complaint that alleges he uploaded the first four episodes of this season’s "24" earlier this year before they were originally aired on the Fox television network.
Jorge Romero, 24, is accused of uploading the first two episodes of this season’s "24" to the LiveDigital.com website on January 6 – eight days before it was broadcast on Fox. Romero is accused of uploading the second two episodes of "24" to the same website on January 7, the same day that he allegedly posted links to the uploads on other websites, which made it easier for people interested in seeing the unauthorized episodes to find them. Fox broadcast the first four episodes of "24" on January 14 and 15, and subsequently released the four-episode season premier on DVD.
According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, Fox discovered the illegal uploads on LiveDigital.com on January 8. On April 4, special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation interviewed Romero, who admitted that he had obtained the pirated copies from another website, that he uploaded the episodes of "24" to LiveDigitial.com prior to them being aired by Fox, and that he put links to the uploads on another website.
Romero is charged in the criminal complaint with uploading copyrighted material to a publicly accessible computer network knowing the work was intended for commercial distribution, a felony that carries a statutory maximum sentence of three years in federal prison.
A criminal complaint contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in court.
This case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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Release No. 07-073
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