Police Charge ‘maVen’, ‘World Leader’ in Internet Movie Piracy
Written by enigmax on December 05, 2007Anyone into downloading pirate movies from the internet over the last few years likely knows that the label ‘maVen’ on a video release was usually a mark of a high quality ‘cammed’ movie. After dozens of major releases and investigations by the FBI and Canadian police, ‘maVen’ now faces 6 months in jail.
Between 2004 and 2006, not many movie release groups could keep up with the mighty ‘maVen’ when it came to releasing quality ‘Telesync‘ versions of pirated movies onto the internet. From great versions of the ‘Bourne Supremacy’, ‘Collateral’ and ‘Spongebob Squarepants’ in 2004, through to their 2005 releases ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ and ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ to name just a few, maVen consistently delivered the goods. 2006 saw ‘maVen’ releases of serious heavyweight movies including ‘Underworld Evolution’, ‘Mission Impossible 3′, ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’, ‘Cars’ and ‘Superman Returns’. (full list available here).
Then, at the end of July 2006, ‘maVen’ releases mysteriously came to an abrupt halt.
According to reports, an FBI investigation into ‘maVen’ had been running for some time and was handed to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in April 2006.
“He was referred to us by the FBI,” said RCMP Staff Sgt. Noel St-Hilaire. “They had an investigation in the States.”
In September 2006, it all started coming together for the RCMP. Assisted by information from the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, police arrested Geremi Adam (now 25) outside a Montreal theater after allegedly ‘camming’ the movies “How to Eat Fried Worms” and “Invincible.” 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, Geremi Adam had been selling copies of movies on the internet using the alias ‘maVen’ (asking between $300 and $1,000 each), which were then re-sold on the web and the streets. There had previously been rumors on the internet that ‘maVen’ had been dealing with commercial pirates but both sets of allegations are yet to be proven. Although ‘maVen’ releases ceased, another group called ‘maVenssupplieR‘ immediately took up the slack.
Following Adam’s arrest came a 14 month wait as the police combed computer systems and equipment looking for evidence to convict him. He now faces two counts of distributing copyright material on the internet.
However, luckily for Adam, he was arrested before tough new legislation was introduced to crack down on movie cammers in Canada, so he will escape the most severe punishments, unlike Louis-Rene Hache who was caught recently by the police and faces two years in jail.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Noel St-Hilaire explained: “Unfortunately at the time there was no legislation that forbid anyone from filming in a cinema. There’s not much we could do then other than issue a warning.”
Geremi Adam will appear in court on 30th January 2008 where he will face the possibility of a $25,000 fine and six months in jail
Previously: Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk48)
Next: US Anti-Piracy Bill Increases Penalties for Copyright Infringement
109 Responses
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Funny, reminds me, Oink was selling their service too, right?
Morons, maVen never fucking sold his shit.
Hi little kiddies, I’m the reason filesharer kiddies are going to prison so I can molest the **** out of them.
I love the filesharing laws, I need to give millions of dollars to the RIAA and MPA so I can molest more children, ahhhhhh I Love law Enforcement, if it weren’t for them I would have less children to have fun with.
Thanx RIAA
(btw I’m not a molester, just a parody)
[quote comment="231806"]Hi little kiddies, I’m the reason filesharer kiddies are going to prison so I can molest the **** out of them.
I love the filesharing laws, I need to give millions of dollars to the RIAA and MPA so I can molest more children, ahhhhhh I Love law Enforcement, if it weren’t for them I would have less children to have fun with.
Thanx RIAA
(btw I’m not a molester, just a parody)[/quote]
You are a dirty rotten scoundrel.
I hate your kind. The RIAA was wrong to lie and say P2P networks are all about porn.
I have a idea, lets ban child porn photos, filter them, so we can prove the congress wrong and say Filesharings about stopping corporate greed, stopping pigs, helping people who can’t pay for stuff, kinda like Community sponsored Social Security for the poor people.
Comeon have a heart Bush, Have a heart all governments, make filesharing legal.
I’m all for piracy of any kind - paid or unpaid - that hurts the MPAA, they have been ripping us off for years in a myriad of ways with their director’s cut DVD’s, extended director’s cut, ultimate editions, etc, etc. Fuck them all, every last one of them. I hope it gets so bad for the studio execs that they have to prostitute themselves on street corners to survive.
I’ve started to encrypt all of my sensitive folders on my HD. Never know what will happen in the future
@CaptainHack
a lot of people used the nick “maVen.” There is only one REAL maVen - the releaser of telesyncs - many of which were children’s movies, but also a good deal of regular ones as well. If you got banned by anyone with the nickname maVen it was almost assuredly NOT the same maVen who released telesyncs. I’m still slightly skeptical one whether or not he was ACTUALLY selling, the police always make shit up. Take the OiNK case for example–they claimed the site was pay for axx, when it ABSOLUTELY was not (it was voluntary donations only).
In response to #2, we are not talking regular cams here, I hope you’ve actually seen a maVen rls before making that sort of comment.
–on another note WTF is happening with the comment system here: I keep getting a message that says “You are posting comments too quickly. Slow down.” <==this is my first comment today how am I going to slow down?
These news reports always make the “loss” much greater than it was (and is). He is 25. Slap on the wrist and nothing more.
“torrentfreakarepussy” Offically = fool
“I’ve started to encrypt all of my sensitive folders on my HD.” Extra locks on the front door… and back windows! Don’t talk on the phone… wear dark jackets… nothing bigger than a 14″ TV… hmmm anything else a paranoid mind should do?
one other thing, the article seems to imply that mavenssupplier is somehow related to maVen when this is completely false. mavenssupplier release cams, telesyncs, silvers, R5s, with varied quality. maVen released awesome telesyncs nearly 100% of the time.
Fucking FBI, they don’t let some1 make a couple of bucks here and there, but they have no problem using our tax dollars to fucking bathe them selfs in money. Another reason why America sux.
kinda BS you can go to jail for something trivial like this.
Like that’s a solution, will he come out a reformed person or more of a real criminal.
Jails are for violent criminals not people like this. America seems to treat jail time like a national service now days.
Because movies are worth this much time and effort. I’m sure these cam rips are putting millions of lives at stake.
[quote comment="231438"]I never liked cam-versions anyway.
Put him to jail!
Throw away the key!
I don’t care if he’s buttf***ed!
:)
Everyone knows that cam quality sucks donkeybutt.
They say he was all about quality… hah!
Cam is spam!
It’s only annyoing…[/quote]
What are u saying man?
Why don’t you go in jail you lazy bum…. the rls were awesome by maVen
[quote comment="231907"]“I’ve started to encrypt all of my sensitive folders on my HD.” Extra locks on the front door… and back windows! Don’t talk on the phone… wear dark jackets… nothing bigger than a 14″ TV… hmmm anything else a paranoid mind should do?[/quote]
If your so d*m paranoid you darn son of a b**ch why don’t we all start panicing, start punching each other to death, start framing innocent people as the felon filesharers, start using OTFE Encryption software such as FreeOTFE, Truecrypt, diskcrypt, and f**kcrypt.
Why be so paranoid, live life on the edge, even if 100, well even if 1000 police officers threaten to taser you, run a bus over you with tasers welded on there driven by allegators so you can suffer internal bleeding, and die a very painful death, then you go to hell because god wouldn’t accept a convict to goto heaven.
Have a good day ladies and gents.
[quote comment="231475"]I believe it is NOT a criminal offence to simply film a movie in a theatre. MPAA be damned! Our police officers need to be focusing on real offenders like murders, rapists, drunk driving, theft ETC….who are they really serving?
( I am on my soap box as I write ! )
Not the general public, but Ccorporate america. I can’t imagine any justification for a two year sentence short of holding up a liquor store. Thats just insane to the max! They’re not really hurting the general public by filming a movie. This is clearly not criminal, but a civil offence. This should be handled with a simple fine or such. I guess the MPAA has payed off our politicians. Law is not bought and sold by corporate America. These cams are not really a threat to them anyway due to the poor quality. When I watch one if its good I will go and see it on the BIG screen. ZThis proves that the only thing that matters to these corporations is money, their most precious in all the world. Our Justice system is a sham.[/quote]
Your just realizing that money is worth more than life?
We worry about cammer’s and downloaders, because it hurts big Corps bottom line.
If some crackhead beats someone near to death but not quite, chances are they will get less then a year or get off the charge somehow.
If you have lots of money you can manipulate our double standards of justice. Has anyone heard of an MPA or an RIAA type agency that tracks down hard criminals then works with the FBI to get charges laid and grab huge headlines? This say’s it all. I’ll bet more money & effort is wasted on attacking the P2P world then catching violent criminals
he was selling, he deserved it!
back to #56. Yeah it was actually the real maven. It started over some lord of the rings comment he made, and I did not like it. Therefore, him and I ripped into each other for about a year straight. I tried to ignore the crap most of the time, but I did not like his superiority complex. While their are many involved in that group I find it troubling that their are asswads across the scene that gang up on noobs or newcomers trying to contribute. Yes he was a mod on one of the private trackers. If you all belonged to it you know who I am talking about.
I belong to that private tracker you speak of…its not the same maVen. What would a scene cammer want with a private tracker when he has access to topsites? Nothing.
Some comrades mention here that piracy for personal use is not illegal. I disagree because at the end, the person who downloads something for himself, could have bought it. Now, if he downloaded it and bought after liking it is another story because it affects only a minor portion of the downloaders.
Now, because media content is so fucking expensive, and I for example can’t simply afford to buy all of it, resort to downloading it from the internet for personal use.
Imagine this for a second, there are large containers everywhere in the street filled with movies,games etc free for all to take, without any restrictions, on top of that they get refilled every day.
Only some altruistic or crazy people would ignore these crates and continue buy things from the shops.
I think the same applies to filesharing. IF only these greedy corporate assholes did something that would make media less expensive, then for fucks sakes everyone would buy it, because original is so much fucking better. But since we can’t, and since all this content is just lying around for free, who the fuck would not take it?
My point is, cams suck, pirates who profit from piracy are gay, and fuck corporations for being so greedy and gay.
[quote comment="232173"] IF only these greedy corporate assholes did something that would make media less expensive, then for fucks sakes everyone would buy it, because original is so much fucking better. [/quote]
Umm I disagree. My DVD backups are better than the original disc. My movies Jump directly to the main menu bypassing the endlessly ugly FBI warning and screeners & Advertisments. Plus, I can omit or add anything else I either want/don’t want in the compilation. Plus, my DVD will have a colorful printed DISC face unlike the plain laser painted discs.
this whole scene is lame on both sides, crap booters and stupid greedy ass companies. i think its time for WW3
1) @ 40: You are a dick. (somebody (admin, mods etc) remove #40’s twenty foot post. Idiot)
2) I read that someone else was thinking the 300-1000 bux thing may be propaganda. It sounds convenient to state he was making money. I mean he should have been selling real estate if he’s good enough to extract those kind of dollars for CAMs, no matter how good they were. It also drove an immediate wedge between him and the rest of the p2p community.
3) p2p does not equal porn. Child or otherwise. I mean that sort of thing could be carried around in a backpack or a briefcae, too. But you don’t see laws against containers or packages. You don’t see UPS or FedEx being maligned. Hear, hear! Class action lawsuit against the Media barons, their hacks, any politicians on the take and law enforcement for DEFAMATION. What a news story THAT would make. Shine a light on p2p, present it and our lives and rights properly. I for one feel as though I have been labelled a potential ‘deviant’ by virtue of my support for p2p. I’m pretty sure it’s discrimination, defamation and last but not least a direct attack on my person’d dignity. Any comments?
3) Really, remove that tool’s post (#40)
Even if p2p networks were just porn, Who’s to complain anyway, what are they…gays?
CAM =/= TS, TC, R5
Durrdurr
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