DOJ accuses DVD production employee of stealing unreleased movie discs

Authorities arrested a DVD and Blu-ray disc manufacturing company worker for allegedly stealing and selling discs of unreleased Hollywood films, the Department of Justice said in a Thursday statement. Prosecutors accused Steven Hale of stealing DVD and Blu-ray discs of popular films manufactured and primed for commercial distribution by his company, though not yet publicly available.

The 37-year-old Memphis, Tenn., man now faces two counts of criminal copyright infringement, each carrying a maximum five-year prison sentence. Authorities also charged him with one count of interstate transportation of stolen goods which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

What kinds of movies did he steal? The DOJ release named popular films including F9: The Fast Saga, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Godzilla v. Kong, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Dune, Black Widow, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Hale used e-commerce sites to sell the illegal discs weeks before their scheduled in-store release dates. Hale's illegal online copy of Spider-Man: No Way Home was downloaded tens of millions of times, resulting in an estimated loss of tens of millions of dollars for the rightful copyright owner, according to the DOJ.