'Wolverine' Pirate Gets One Year In Prison

by Jeremy Gordon

A few years ago, there was a lot of hubbub surrounding "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." (No, it wasn't the way they messed up Deadpool.) About a month prior to the film's release, an unfinished copy was uploaded to the Internet for crazed fans to download and peruse. Lacking CGI or careful editing, the version was still more or less intact, and fans were able to criticize to their heart's content. (Again, mostly about Deadpool.)

Though the original source of the leak was never found, the U.S. attorney's office nabbed one scapegoat for the affair: Gilberto Sanchez, who admitted to putting the workprint on Megaupload.com and spreading the link around the Internet. Yesterday, Sanchez was sentenced to a year in federal prison on one count of uploading copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution.

Sanchez said he bought a copy of the workprint on a Bronx steet corner, but prosecutors weren't dismayed.

"The federal prison sentence handed down in this case sends a strong message of deterrence to would-be Internet pirates," U.S. attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said in a statement. "The Justice Department will pursue and prosecute persons who seek to steal the intellectual property of this nation."

A one-year sentence seems hardly fitting considering the movie still ended up grossing $ 373 million worldwide, but those limits are in place as a deterrent against other would-be pirates, and Sanchez has to bear the sole damage against the thousands who presumably downloaded the incomplete film. It's a sad story, but hopefully Sanchez will come out of it without looking worse for the wear.

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