Production assistant has been caught stealing hundreds of thousands from Lucasfilm. (1 Viewer)

[Michael St. Clair]

If he didn't make any profit, he's not going to do any jail time. Wagers?
Do I think it was right? Nope. Do I think it's worth spending any substantial amount of time over? No, and the courts will likely agree.
ps The subject header of this thread is very misleading.

 

[Terrell]

Why? He did steal $450,000 from Lucasfilm. What would you have named it? And I'm sorry, but anyone that STEALS, and that's what he did no matter how may excuses are made, nearly a half million dollars of material that doesn't belong to him, he deserves a stiff punishment. Maybe not 7 years in jail, but something incredibly stiff.
By the way, replicating an IP is not all he did. From reading the news about this, he took stuff in physical form from Lucasfilm in addition to hacking a computer. At least that's the way it sounds.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Why? He did steal $450,000 from Lucasfilm. What would you have named it? And I'm sorry, but anyone that STEALS, and that's what he did no matter how may excuses are made, nearly a half million dollars of material that doesn't belong to him, he deserves a stiff punishment. Maybe not 7 years in jail, but something incredibly stiff.

How much did you STEAL when you copied a copyrighted article into this thread?

What is the dollar amount that the original publisher can claim was stolen from them?

 

[Bill Slack]

Michael:
Hah. The irony ...
From the sounds of it he didn't steal much of anything, honestly. Like I said, if he did that certainly changes it, but reading deeper into it, I really doubt it. LF is CALLING it stealing because they want to make their case stronger (and I can't blame them for that either.)
Copyright infringement, violation of the DMCA, et al., despite what many plaintiffs would have you believe (the RIAA, especially!), isn't stealing. It's not _right_ necessarily, or even legal, but it's NOT stealing.
The 'hacking', from how I read it, was him downloading stuff available to him on the network (for work use, he was a production assistant at LF, this stuff isn't going to be hidden away!) onto his Mac and burning a CD. I somehow doubt a production assistant using a Mac is going to have the faintest idea how to bypass even the most basic computer security measures.
LF wants to make it sound as bad as possible. Even if they don't 'win', they want to make an example out of him. After this, I'm sure any employee will think twice about posting things to the net (which clearly happens all the time at companies like this.)
Most copyright infringement is a CIVIL infraction whereas stealing is CRIMINAL.
Downloading a hundred songs off of Kazaa is a lot different than stealing a hundred singles from Best Buy. Just like posting a copy-written article is a lot different than stealing the writers laptop and posting it yourself.
I download tons of 'illegal' music. I'm listening to a song from Moulin Rouge right now. I won't by the CD. I only want a few songs from the original movie. I own the movie, I could just record them from there. But these aren't actually from the DVD, they're from the CD. So, technically the RIAA can sue me now, but I don't care.
For the record I've stolen two things in my life, a candy bar and a magazine. The candy bar was when I was about 11 and my 'friends' were all doing it. I didn't feel good about it and that was enough of a lesson for me. The magazine I just forgot to pay for (really!) But I must infringe on someones copyright everyday. Oh I stole a piece of meat from Stop and Shop a couple months ago because the thing would NOT scan. Combine that with all my song stealing and I should be in jail.
Look:
I own a Walkman.
I used a Kleenex.
My house has Windows.
Just to start playing it safe: The above are registered trademarks of Sony, Kimberly Clark Corporation and Microsoft, respectively.

Sorry for the sarcasm, it's my manner.

 

[Stephanie T.]

Newsflash: USC Film School has called George Lucas; wants original print of THX 1138 back, along with shares of proceeds from theatrical releases and sales and rentals of same, plus royalties for every reference to THX 1138 in Lucas' Star Wars films.

 

[Nigel McN]

because I haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere here is Harry's response but basically 'Shea O'Brien Foley is someone I've never met, heard from or been contacted by.'

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Then someone higher in the hierarchy must have leaked the movie!

 

[Ricardo C]

It was that Chiang guy, I tell ya. It was his way of saying "up yours, Lucas!" before leaving