Redazione RHC : 13 September 2025 10:25
A U.S. court sentenced a Memphis resident to four and a half years in prison for selling digital copies of movies before their official release. Steven R. Hale, 37, who worked at a DVD and Blu-ray production and distribution company, stole soon-to-be-released discs and resold them online.
The crimes were committed from February 2021 to March 2022, and in May 2025, Hale pleaded guilty of copyright infringement and agreed to repay damages by returning to his employer approximately 1,160 DVDs and Blu-ray discs seized by investigators.
Furthermore, the man was found in possession of a handgun with a loaded magazine and a round in the chamber, which led to an additional charge of unlawful possession of a weapon, as he had already been convicted of armed robbery. According to the Department of Justice, Hale posted pirated copies of the discs on marketplaces and file-sharing sites.
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The stolen films include Godzilla vs. Kong, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Dune, Fast and Furious 9, Venom 2, and Black Widow. The case of Spider-Man: No Way Home caused a particular stir because Hale managed to bypass the Blu-ray protection system and upload the film online more than a month before its official release. According to investigators, this resulted in losses of tens of millions of dollars, and copies of the film were downloaded millions of times.
The investigation found that his actions caused tens of millions of dollars in damages to film distributors. An FBI representative emphasized that the films in question were blockbusters, and that illegal pre-release and disc distribution undermined the profits of movie studios.
Hale’s story is part of a larger trend involving digital content theft. In March, New York prosecutors indicted two StubHub contractors—Tyrone Rose, 20, and Shamara Simmons, 31—for reselling nearly 1,000 stolen tickets to concerts by Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Adele, the US Open, and NBA games. The scams netted over $635,000, and the two face up to 15 years in prison.
Therefore, the Hale case and other similar cases demonstrate the increasing severity of penalties for crimes related to intellectual property and the illegal circulation of digital content.
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