A Maryland man was sentenced Friday to six months in prison and six months of house arrest in a DVD bootlegging case.
John M. Harris of Bryans Road, Md., pled guilty in May to criminal copyright infringement, admitting to burning 600-1,000 movies each weekend and delivering them to the Florida Avenue farmer's market.
Among the copied titles were "Kung Fu Panda 2," "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Bridesmaids," as well as hundreds of others, Harris admitted.
"Harris and criminals like him threaten the livelihoods of the hardworking people who depend on compensation from copyrighted materials to support their families," said Special Agent John P. Torres. "Those involved in intellectual property theft don't invest in product development; nor do they put a premium on product quality or safety. What they do is profit at someone else's expense."
The court has ordered Harris to pay restitution to the copyright holders and turn in the equipment used to copy DVDs, which includes 11 disk duplication towers, each capable of producing 10 DVDs simultaneously. All known copyright-infringing DVDs will be destroyed.
Homeland Security agents raided Harris' home in October 2011, seizing more than 1,100 copies of movies that would have been valued at more than $47,000.
