Canadian Movie Pirate ‘maVen’ Sent To Jail
Geremi Adam, a member of the movie release group ‘maVen’ has been sentenced to two and a half months in prison. The 27 year-old Montreal resident, who was referred to the Canadian police by the FBI, pleaded guilty to distributing two major motion pictures.
Half a decade ago ‘maVen‘ was one of the most active movie release groups on the Internet, known for distributing high quality ‘Telesync‘ versions of major blockbuster titles. In the summer of 2006 ‘maVen’ releases suddenly halted, and it later became apparent that the FBI had caught one of its key members.
An FBI investigation into ‘maVen’ 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 “How to Eat Fried Worms” and “Invincible” at a Montreal movie theater.
They seized his laptop and other equipment and later released him, only for him to be arrested again at another theater just a month later. According to the police, Adam had been selling copies of movies on the Internet using the alias ‘maVen,’ which were then re-sold on the web and the streets.
Following Adam’s arrest came a 14 month wait as the police combed computer systems and equipment looking for evidence to convict him. The FBI had labeled him the ‘World Leader’ in Internet piracy and his case went before court several months later.
Today the verdict came in, and the Court sentenced Adam to two and a half months in prison – the prosecution had demanded four. The defense lawyer had argued for community service because Adam suffers from depression and a troubled childhood, but despite these arguments, the Court decided to opt for a prison sentence.
As of today there are still dozens of ‘maVen’ releases available on BitTorrent, although most of these files have no active downloaders anymore.
