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Actor Wes DeSoto has agreed to plead guilty to copyright infringement for leaking an awards screener of Black Swan and other films to file-sharer BitTorrent. DeSoto’s L.A. apartment was raided by FBI agents in April after a MPAA piracy officer tipped the feds that several high-quality copies of feature films had shown up on the site. The bootlegs were review screeners provided through the iTunes store to members of the Screen Actors Guild. The authorities pinpointed DeSoto as the culprit through digital watermarks in the movies, according to an FBI affidavit. Federal sentencing guidelines call for a sentence between 10 to 16 months, but the government is seeking three years of probation and restitution. DeSoto is expected to appear in federal court for sentencing next month.
SAG Member Cops Plea On Screener Leak
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Put the asshole in jail or no one will ever take the law seriously!
Two or three years in jail for stealing Intellectual Property. He goes to jail for merely putting the files in a place where it is easy to steal them, and the people who stole the movies from that easy place? and before that the people who stole the ideas for the movie in the first place?
Steal an idea, Go to jail…
What a concept.
give him the chair!
Make him watch Bucky Larson!
You bust your ass to get your SAG card, and this is what you do?
Bust his ass? Maybe he got it the old-fashioned way?
Send him to jail to make a statement, put his name and photo on a “wall of shame” that appears in SAG’s magazine, and then blacklist him from getting acting work. It’s thieving idiots like him that have done their fair share of damaging the movie business.
He got what he deserved, end of story!
I hope SAG kicks him out of the Guild and he never gets an acting job again. This is how we all make a living. If you give it away for free, no one will ever pay for it. I like having a job.
He has 2 credits to his name on imdb – bit parts. Why in the world did he get a screener? Lax, lax, lax.
You’re completely right. And on top of that, his biggest role in CSI is “uncredited” (on top of just CSI being your biggest role shows how much of a loser this guy is). How’d he ever get into SAG in the first place, and how’d he get a screener watermarked to him (i.e. I could understand if he borrowed a friend’s iTunes account or something like that)? Makes no sense.
Karen, if you’re in SAG, you’re eligible to vote for the SAG awards. If a film is nominated for an award, SAG or otherwise, the producers/marketers, etc. sometines send screeners to the potential voters. That’s probably how he got it.
In other words, he abused one of the nicer perquisites afforded to Guild members, and in the process made all members look bad.
He should be thrown out of SAG.
Probation? He needs to get a ‘no trespass’ order on the city of L.A. and jail time.
So THIS guy must be the reason that this $12 Million dollar budgeted film only made $300 million plus at the box office. I agree, throw the book at this evil excuse for a human being, I bet he cost the producers of “Black Swan” ten’s of dollars in profits!!!
I wish SAG would put as much effort into keeping middle class actors from starving to death and losing health care and not letting those underhanded shitbags at AFTRA poach all the work as they do in tracking down some dumb sap who put a movie online. You wanna throw SAG members in prison who actually deserve it? I’ll send you a list…
It starts with Andy Dick.
This shitbag probably cost the producers millions of dollars in lost revenue. You sound like you’ve got an axe to grind and it makes it pretty diffucult to take what you say seriously…that and your totally irrational reasoning. A high quality copy of an in demand drama is probably more likely to be pirated and not seen in the theatre than any other genre. It doesnt have the spectical aspect of an action blockbuster to draw audiences to the theaters, and can be viewed from a computer chair while retaining the majority of its potence, artistic and otherwise. He is a prime example of the parasite that has been leeching opportunity out of this industry for everyone. Producers, directors and actors (like yourself) who will probably peak with a guest spot on S*!t My Dad Says.
Well actually you’re wrong, I’m not an actor nor do I believe I will be guest starring on “S*!t My Dad Says” any time soon as it was cancelled and ceased production many, many months ago! In fact I’m a independent film producer who had a fairly successful “little” film in last years Toronto film Festival. We too were the victims of pirating and I’m totally against it for the record. Our movie popped up online over a month before it’s release and it hurt us…badly, It was just the type of movie you describe with a very strong appeal to young males who I’m guessing do the lion’s share of downloading pirated films. But I still don’t believe this one incident of a leaked copy of “Black Swan” did any real discernible damage to it’s final box office tally. The guy is stupid and shouldn’t have done it. I’m reacting to the voracious lynch mob comments that I think blow out of proportion the seriousness of this guys misdeed. I feel the real thief’s are the weak unions and there leaders who are “stealing” from their ranks with each new chickenshit negotiation and watered down contract. I like fair, for everyone, and as a producer take no joy in the numerous concessions made by the unions over the last several years that have made making a decent living a thing of the past for so many actors, writers and others.
Put him in a new NBC Sitcom!
He’ll probably get a movie deal out of this.
Ouch!That wasn’t very nice from him and now he must pay the consequences!
Kinda stupid. We all know China had this movie already for sale before he put it up.
Does SAG have a “morality clause” such that they could kick him out? And what is that about “Hollywood Blacklist?” “It is to laugh.” He didn’t steal the movies, ho just put them out where everybody else could steal (not his work,) your work. What is the appropriate punishment for giving away your work? Hell, your union just gave it away for the first 21 days, didn’t they?
It was a screener for the purpose of voting for an award. It was not given away for people to put on the internet for others to steal.
And to the person who commented on the box office gross of the film. Excuse me but there is no excuse to steal anyone’s intellectual property.
By the way, affidavit (re: FBI affadavit above) is spelled the way I just spelled it.
Just when you thought all was well in Hollywood, you find out one of their own is on the take! Just a double-crossing, back-stabbing thug who bites the hand that feeds him, and to make matters worse, he goes back on his word to the producers. Please go easy on him, maybe he needed the money. The bloke could just be broke ever since SAG’s new media contract included that hiring of non-union actors clause. Maybe he’s just BEEN broke ever since that crappy DVD residuals contract clause back in the 90s. Awww, if only the poor guy would have hung in their a little longer, he wouldn’t have had to commit the crime. Because, I am pretty darn sure the producers are going revisit these issues just as soon as the next contract is up. I am certain they will, I mean, they are the producers and they gave us their word.
He got a screener because he was a paid up SAG member. That’s how you get screeners for the SAG awards.
How are they going to determine restitution?
I enjoyed the download thanks Wes ……. kidding, I saw it at the movies. It was a great one to experience on the big screen, especially when its Natalie Portman, even if it’s the crazy version of Natalie… BTW I’m an actor from Australia, we know what a tough industry this can be with the little funds that are available to support our art.
Give him a medal! He struck a blow against the greedy Hollywood corporate elite in the name of the proletariat!! All REAL socially conscious people should realize how hard it is for the deserving poor to afford the inflated prices of movie tickets that the Hollywood OLIGARCHS charge the downtrodden & oppressed masses, victims of Hollywood’s insensitivity to their desperate need for entertainment and diversion, a relief from the crushing burdens this poor economy has brought on them. Free content is a CIVIL RIGHT! DENYING THIS IS EQUIVALENT TO CULTURAL GENOCIDE! People over corporate profits! Down with the OLIGARCHS! FREE WES DESOTO!
you are bat shit crazy. I am so profoundly irritated by what you said that I am at a loss for words. Free content is not a civil right, that is the fundamental component of the entire world economy. Goods and services. If you want something that I have, or that I created, then you give me something of value in exchange. I want to say more but you are so clearly out of your mind that going further is a waste of my time.
So you don’t feel people should make a living working on and in film and television?
Hey, I’m renovating my house at the moment and believe that EVERYONE should be able to afford to renovate their house. I think the plumbers, electricians and all the contractors should work for FREE!!!
who cares, let him go and put polanski in prison for the rest of his life.
Aww give the guy a break. Clearly he must have some medically defined mental deficiency. Otherwise, how could he possibly be that stupid to upload multiple films without knowing they are watermarked? Seriously, he’s got to be one of the pure dumbest people in Hollywood…
Guess he’ll hang his shingle as a lit manager next… Or maybe apply for a development job then. Should do well in either of those.
2 Thumbs up!
I’m shocked! No previous leaks ever came from someone with privileged access in this town.
If you are a Screen Actors Guild EXTRA!! you get screeners! Maybe there should be a type of minimum earnings you have to make before you are allowed screeners as an Extra.
Great, get the FBI involved, raid his studio apartment, and put him in jail. “These are the types of guys destroying the movie business”…what kind of idiot are you anyway? Black Swan made $300 million dollars on a budget of $13 million dollars. I’m still waiting for somebody to prove to me that piracy is destroying movies…remember when a DVD rip of Wolverine was put up before the movie was released, and it STILL made $85 million opening weekend, before the 3d boom? I’m not saying piracy should be legal, by all means it shouldn’t. This guy should just pay a fine of a few grand which I’m sure would render him broke. And what about all of the thieves that are getting work in hollywood? I worked for a major production company in the late 90′s, wrote a treatment for a movie, and talked about it with the other assistant. Well, a couple years go by, I run into the assistant and ask how he’s doing (I knew he was a writer too). He said he just got repped by William Morris, and I said, “Congrats, man!”, and asked which script it was. He forgot who he was talking to for a second, then realized, and said, “It’s funny actually, you remember that treatment we wrote? And I said which one. He said the one about James Cameron (it was a Being John Malkovich type movie), and I said, you mean my treatment. He laughed and said, oh, we changed it a bit. I said where’s my credit, and he walked away. Why isn’t this guy in jail? Now he and his brother, both big writers who are having their first animated movie made now with Adam Sandler. Now you tell me, should these guys be working in Hollywood, after straight up stealing from me, taking all the credit, and the nice payday it got them?
what an idiot, honestly, it’s so simple, when you get screeners just don’t upload them and that’s it, he shouldn’t do any time, probation and restitution will be enough AS LONG AS they kick this guy out of SAG immediately.