14 DAY TRIAL // A 22-year-old Englishman jailed for six months after recording films in a cinema with his iPhone, got the sentence changed to 120 hours of community service.
Emmanuel Nimley, 22, of Harrow, northwest London, was arrested back in March, while recording The Bounty Hunter in a Vue cinema.
According to the authorities he also previously recorded The Crazies, Alice in Wonderland and The Green Zone, and uploaded them to a movie sharing website.
Nimley's case is noteworthy because the prosecutors charged him with offenses under the Fraud Act of 2006; in particular, possession of articles for use in frauds and making or supplying articles for use in frauds.
This created some controversy in the media because Nimley's actions qualify more as copyright infringement, which is a civil matter, and not fraud, a criminal one.
Despite the quality of the video and sound being extremely poor and no material gain resulting from the man's action, the prosecution decided to press on with the case.
Nimley did not fight the charges and pleaded guilty to all of them in August, saying that his family was ashamed asked him to be honest.
He was sentenced in September to six months in prison, which was seen as a reason for celebration for the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), an anti-piracy organization that collaborated in the investigation.
However, on Wednesday, a judge at the Criminal Court of Appeal, changed the prison sentence to one of 120 hours of community service, to be executed during the following twelve months.
FACT argues that even if Nimely escaped jail time, this is still a landmark criminal conviction for actions related to copyright infringement.
"It’s the first conviction of its kind and vindicates the use of the Fraud Act. Judges considered the case very carefully and they had no issue with the legal process, nor the arrest," a spokesperson told The Register.