(Frankfurt, 21 June 2005) The upper chamber of the state court in Frankfurt has sentenced a movie thief to three years in prison without parole. The defendant was convicted of distributing bootleg copies via eBay using various aliases in the year 2001. The supposed anonymity of the Internet was of little use to the convicted movie thief Oliver W. He was captured despite his best efforts to hide his identity. The court investigated more than 849 cases. In the end, 37 proven cases of copyright theft were sufficient to convict and sentence the bootlegger.

The convicted criminal had been running a very professional operation, taking in more than 100,000 euros. The damage to the film industry was estimated by the Business Software Alliance (BAS) at just below 700,000 euros.

Experts believe Oliver W. can also expect civil claims for damages on the part of the copyright owners. Even in the hard-core file-sharing forums on the Internet, where users are generally oblivious to the consequences of their actions, some began expressing concern: "They’re really serious about this,” was the brief comment of one visitor to the site. Just how serious “they” are will be seen in the coming months, for Oliver W. is just one of many movie thieves now awaiting sentencing as defendants in German courts.