Two American men were sentenced yesterday to prison terms of up to two years and six months for selling pirated DVDs over the Internet in a rare success for joint US-China efforts to enforce intellectual property laws.
Shanghai's No. 2 District Court ordered Randolph Hobson Guthrie, 38, to serve a two-year, six-month jail sentence and pay a 500,000 yuan (US$60,500) fine for selling pirated DVDs.
Judge Xue Zheng dismissed the more serious charge of illegally operating a business.
Abram Cody Thrush, convicted as an accessory, was sentenced to one year in prison and fined 10,000 yuan (US$1,200). Both men were ordered to be deported after serving their sentences.
The two Americans and two Chinese co-defendants were accused of using the Internet to sell more than 180,000 counterfeit DVDs to buyers in 25 countries. Officials said about 20,000 of the DVDs were sold to US buyers. Prosecutors said they seized 119,000 pirated DVDs in raids last summer on Guthrie's Shanghai apartment and a warehouse rented by Wu Shibiao.
Xue said the men had the right to appeal, but there was no immediate word on whether they would.
"There really isn't too much of a basis for appeal," Guthrie's lawyer, Zhai Jian, told reporters after the trial. "I think it was a pretty fair judgment."
Zhai said Guthrie could have received a sentence of more than 10 years if the illegal business charge had been upheld. He said the conviction was the first he knew of involving a foreigner selling pirated DVDs.
Guthrie was "really more upset about the deportation order," Zhai said.
"He's lived here for 10 years, he bought a home here, he really feels for Shanghai," he said.
Guthrie, wearing a red long-sleeve T-shirt and looking disheveled, made no audible comments as he and the other defendants stood during the hour-long hearing, each flanked by two uniformed police officers.
US Consulate officials attended the court session, but also made no comment.
Chinese co-defendant Wu Dong was found guilty of aiding the operation and sentenced to one year in prison along with a fine of 10,000 yuan. Wu Shibiao, was also convicted of helping Guthrie, but was released and ordered to pay a 30,000 yuan fine.
The sentences marked the culmination of a three-year investigation into Guthrie's pirate DVD operation involving US customs, Chinese police and industry group, the Motion Picture Association of America.
Investigators said the case saw unprecedented cooperation between Chinese and US law enforcement. The US and other nations has been pressing China to crackdown on rampant copyright violations. The four had been put on trial in January, but a verdict was delayed at Guthrie's request.
"This landmark case will serve as a roadmap for future Intellectual Property Rights investigations,'' Michael Garcia, the US Homeland Security responsible for customs investigation, said in a statement in response to Guthrie's conviction.
Garcia said US Customs began tracking Guthrie after undercover agents linked him to pirated discs being sold at a Mississippi flea market.
Along with DVDs seized from Guthrie, evidence in the case involved shipping invoices and bank transfer receipts, some of which were provided by US law enforcement, Xue said.
Guthrie, of New York City, sold his discs via Web sites including e-Bay. Investigators said many of the bogus discs were of high quality and included complete sets of the James Bond movies.
Guthrie's operation earned him US$159,000 between October 2002 and November 2003, Xue said. Thrush, of Portland, Oregon, provided technical assistance and earned only US$1,450 from the operation, Xue said.
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