Movie 'pirate' dead in jail cell
Russell Sprague, the man who acquired more than 130 screeners of Hollywood features including "The Last Samurai" and "Mystic River" and then posted them on the p2p networks, was found dead in a Los Angeles prison cell.
He got the movies from Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences member Carmine Caridi, 70, who was recently ordered to pay Warner Bros $300,000 for providing Sprague with the copies.
Sprague, 52, was facing three years in jail after pleading guilty to one count of copyright infringement. He was to have been sentenced March 21.
He may have died of a heart attack, the US Marshals Service said, according to Newsday, which adds, “His body was discovered Monday morning and an autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday.”
The movie industry cartel-owned MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) has just sued an undisclosed number of people whom, it states, shared movies online. It didn’t say how many were Hollywood insiders, such as Caridi.
http://p2pnet.net/story/4070