Movie pirate hit with $1.2 million fine for leaking ‘The Revenant’ prior to film’s release

A movie pirate was ordered this week to pay $1.2 million to 20th Century Fox after he admitted illegally uploading two of its films to the internet.

The hefty restitution was handed down in federal court Monday to William Kyle Morarity, a 31-year-old father of four from Lancaster, Calif.

Morarity was working for an undisclosed Hollywood studio in 2015 when he acquired preview copies of “The Revenant” and “The Peanuts Movie,” then copied the films to a portable drive and shared them with the “Pass the Popcorn” BitTorrent site, according to court documents.

Prosecutors argued that Morarity cost the studio a minimum of $1 million in losses by making “The Revenant” freely available on the internet six days before it appeared in theaters. He pleaded guilty in February to felony copyright infringement and was sentenced this week by U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson to eight months’ home detention and two years probation in addition to the restitution.

Morarity has also agreed to help the FBI in making a public service announcement that will focus on “the harms of copyright infringement and the illegal uploading of movies that are the legal property of the movie studio,” the Justice Department said in a statement Tuesday.

“The film industry creates thousands of jobs in Southern California,” U.S. Attorney Eileen Decker said. “The defendant’s illegal conduct caused significant harm to the victim movie studio. The fact that the defendant stole these films while working on the lot of a movie studio makes his crime more egregious.”

“Stealing movies is not a victimless crime,” David Bowdich of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office said previously. “The FBI will continue to pursue those who steal intellectual property, a crime that negatively impacts the U.S. economy, and in the case of a movie leak, victimizes everyday workers in the entertainment industry.”

Released in December 2015, “The Revenant” starring Leonardo DiCaprio was honored with Best Director, Best Actor and Best Cinematography at this year’s Academy Award’s ceremony. Worldwide, the film grossed around $533 million as of July 2016 — a little more than double the amount earned by last year’s computer-animated “The Peanuts Movie.”