14 DAY TRIAL // "The Prince of Piracy" has been forced to walk the plank. A legal plank with a sentence of seven years of imprisonment at its end. Johnny Ray Gasca, 36, was first arrested in Burbank, then in Los Angeles and finally in a Thousand Oaks theater. In every location, Gasca had sneaked in sophisticated recording equipment including remote zoom lens and monitor devices and an infrared sound receiver.
"The Prince of Piracy" was charged with three misdemeanor counts for taping "Anger Management," "8 Mile" and "The Core" and convicted to a total of seven years of prison. "The prosecution, conviction and substantial sentence imposed on Mr. Gasca today shows the seriousness of his offenses and the fact that we take copyright infringement as a very serious crime," stated Elena Duarte, head of the cyber and intellectual crime section of the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles.
"We are pleased that the court recognized Gasca's crimes today with a fitting punishment," revealed MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman.
Gasca has defended his innocence throughout the trial period and stated that he had failed to profit from the illegal tapings. This despite all the confiscated equipment, and being taped by a theater camera designed to record audience reactions. In fact, Gasca contributed decisively to his own sentence by keeping a diary chronicling his daily piracy. The diary revealed that Gasca made over $4,500 per week by selling bootlegged movies. "The Prince of Piracy" was arrested in April 2005 at a motel in Kissimmee, and the seven years of prison sentence was passed 18 months later by U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson in Los Angeles.