One of these countries is Australia and local anti-piracy group AFACT has been very active in addressing this problem. During February we reported that Australian officials had arrested and charged a man in Sydney on 18 counts of copyright infringement, after it was alleged he was a cammer for well known ‘Scene’ group, PreVail.

New South Wales Police and AFACT (on behalf of the MPA) carried out a raid on 26 year-old Craig Farrugia’s residence on February 13th and seized “sophisticated” video camcording and computer equipment after watermarks on movie releases by PreVail allowed investigators to discover the cinema they were cammed in. Among others, the equipment was linked to cammed versions of Bedtime Stories, Beverley Hills Chihuahua, He’s Just Not That Into You, Marley and Me and Yes Man.

Presiding over the trial, Magistrate Keady said that Farrugia was “part of an organized criminal conspiracy,” and went on to say that the movie industry was “entitled to the same protection of their property as are householders whose house is broken into and property removed. It is a property offense similar to that of larceny.”

Since release group Prevail had released more than 200 movies onto the Internet in the last 3 ½ years, it was expected that Farrugia would be taught a harsh lesson by the court if found guilty. Each offense (that’s each camming offense) could have earned Farrugia a $60,500 AUS ($39,000US or €31,000) fine and 5 years imprisonment.

However, the Blacktown Local Court in Sydney surprised everyone, not least the MPA. Although Farrugia pleaded guilty and was convicted, he was fined just A$5,400 (US$3900), placed on an 18 month good behavior bond and set free.

AFACT Director of Operations Neil Gane said that the case had been a success and that the outcome would prove a deterrent to others but the boss of the MPA in the region was entirely more realistic. “While we are pleased with the very prompt closure of this matter, we are disappointed in the sentence meted out by the Court as it has failed to recognize the damage this particular crime can have on the industry.” He added that he hoped in future sentences would be tougher.

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This privacy can also mean that spotting someone surreptitiously recording the movie can be hard. Tinted windows can make the use of night vision equipment futile, and cameras can be hidden or covertly installed in cars. The movie’s audio, piped in through the car’s audio system, can also prove a great direct recording source.

Perhaps for these reasons, the New South Wales police have arrested and charged a man from the south west Sydney area, in connection with movie ‘camming’. The police carried out a raid and searched his residence, with members of the anti-piracy lobby group AFACT assisting (!). Afterwards, they seized what is being described as ’sophisticated video camcording equipment’ (a camcorder) and computer equipment (most likely a computer).

The raid comes after a digital watermark, identifying the cinema, was found in some of the CAM and TS releases from the group ‘PreVail‘. Allegations are that the 26 year old man was linked to that group. However, no information on what ties the unnamed man had with the group has been made public, as a watermark would only identify the cinema that it was recorded at. Interestingly enough, two of the movie titles listed in the press-release have never been released by PreVail. “He’s Just Not That Into You” and “Marley and Me” were indeed released as a Cam version, but not by PreVail.

Of course, the arrests seem to have been prompted by (again) gross exaggerations of the facts by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) with the press releases talking about the great losses CAMs cause. It also comments how Scene ‘Top Sites’ sell their releases to ‘criminal groups’ who then mass produce DVDs for sale. Apart from scene groups often being very anti-sale, it’s unclear why criminal groups would pay for these releases anyway. A wait of less than an hour will enable them to get them for free online.

All things aside, if the man is a member of PreVail (a group that has ‘released’ more than 200 films in the last 3 ½ years) and is convicted, his sentence will not be a light one. With $60,500 AUS ($39,000US or €31,000) and 5 years imprisonment per offense, that can yield a maximum sentence of over a million Aussie dollars and 90 years in prison. In fact, he’s looking at a potential punishment greater than most murderers.

The 18 charges include possessing a device with intent to make an infringing copy, possessing an infringing copy for distribution, and distributing infringing copies. The case will be heard on March 12th at Blacktown Local Court.

On the plus side though, proving the bluster about financial gain will be hard. It appears to be how lobby groups prod police forces to act, even if the police are active pirates themselves.

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During his plea hearing he confessed to being involved in the sourcing and distribution of movies and software. He also admitted organizing and aiding others to ‘cam’ movies still in theaters. The list of movies includes titles such as ‘Cars’, ‘Monster House’, ‘Firewall’, ‘Click’, ‘The BreakUp’ and sundry (forgettable) others. It’s claimed that the movies were then uploaded to servers for other users to download, after they had paid Madhani cash to do so.

For the camming, he’s looking at 3 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and two years of supervised release. Unfortunately, this offense doesn’t carry the longest sentence Madhani faces – we’ll come to that in moment.

From the plea agreement, Madhani appears to be something of a jack-of-all-trades. He admits to being a ‘cammer’ – that is the willful using or directing others in the use of an audio/visual recording device to ‘cam’ or record a movie, currently protected under copyright law.

The most interesting part of the plea is where Madhani further confesses to being a ‘ripper’ by admitting to the circumvention of DVD Digital Rights Management (DRM).

Before making a new ‘master’ from which to take further copies or before uploading to the internet, Madhani removed information from the DVD such as the title, numbers and other markings which identified it as a copyright works – so-called copyright management information.

These actions put Madhani in breach of the DMCA but interestingly, he’s the very first person to be charged for simply removing so-called ‘copyright management information’ from a DVD. Previous cases were all brought for the bypassing of DVD copy-protection mechanisms.

Breaching the DMCA is a serious offense in the US. Just by changing the data held on a DVD, Madhani is facing 5 years in prison plus a $500,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

Madhani also admits to being a ‘racer’, i.e working hard to be the first group or individual to release new movies or software onto the internet for others to download. There doesn’t appear to be any specific punishment for this offense although in the future, the Intellectual Property Enhanced Criminal Enforcement Act of 2007(.pdf) will surely have it covered.

Sentencing is set for Monday December 17, 2007 in San Jose, California.

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