- Authorities charged a 37-year-old Memphis man for allegedly stealing pre-release DVDs and Blu-rays of movies such as F9: The Fast Saga, Godzilla vs. Kong, Dune, and Black Widow and selling them before they were available to the public. He faces up to 20 years in prison on the charges. Authorities have been cracking down on illegal copyright infringement and intellectual property cases, given the substantial impact on businesses targeted. Law enforcement agencies have collected nearly $3 billion worth of seizures in recent years.
The Department of Justice charged Steven R. Hale, 37, with two counts of criminal copyright infringement and a single count of transportation of stolen goods on Thursday after he allegedly nabbed DVDs and Blu-ray discs of major movies and sold them online.
