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Inside DVD Piracy Page 3

Because all the suspects in this bootlegging ring are innocent until proven guilty, and their trial dates hadn't been set by press time, mentally insert an "allegedly" before all allegations made here. The allegations come directly from court papers submitted by the United States Attorney, Southern District of New York, and from information provided by the FBI and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). (We weren't allowed to talk to the suspects in this case because it could prejudice their trial. A convicted bootlegger the MPAA had us contact only wanted to talk about his innocence.)

As for the M:I III scenario above, certain aspects were assumed for the sake of this article - the exact theater and time at which it was cammed is not known by the authorities at this time. But the description of the accused men's MO is accurate, based on documented procedures practiced time and again. And M:I III really was bootlegged by this band of pirates, along with countless other flicks - everything from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest to Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties to Catwoman (apparently anything was game).

"These arrests were absolutely the most significant bust that's been made," says Austen Berglas, FBI supervisory agent for the Cybercrime Squad. Of the billions in revenue lost by the movie industry because of DVD bootlegging, "If 80 percent of that came from this group," Berglas says, "that's pretty significant."

Inside DVD Piracy: How illegal discs are made

1 STEALING THE SHOW A bootlegger with a camcorder (the "cammer") picks a strategic seat in a movie theater and surrounds himself with "blockers," who make sure nobody walks in front of the cammer's lens or discovers the illicit taping. The camcorder is mounted on a small tripod or "monopod" and plugged into the theater chair's audio jack for the hearing-impaired. 2 SELLING THE MASTER One of the cammers meets with a "wholesaler" at a neutral location and passes him a DVD "master" of the illegal video recording. 3 UPLOADING THE BOOTLEG The cammer also transfers the illegal recording to a computer's hard drive and then uploads it to an FTP (file transfer protocol) site for sale to bootleggers around the world. 4 PRINTING THE BOX ART Printers make 15,000 sleeves for the DVD cases, based on posters and other art taken from movie-studio Web sites. 5 DISTRIBUTING THE COPIES "Retailers" buy copies of the recording masters and the printed sleeves from the wholesalers. 6 SELLING THE BOOTLEGS Retailers then sell the bootleg DVDs in front of theaters where the movie is playing, as well as through storefronts and other locations.

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