Oscars disarray as
Academy member
linked to piracy
By Andrew Gumbel in Los
Angeles
24 January 2004
Hollywood's awards season was thrown
into disarray yesterday after the FBI said
it had uncovered an elaborate video
piracy ring and traced it back to private
"screener" tapes entrusted to a veteran
Hollywood actor to help him with his
voting choices for the Oscars.
The 70-year-old actor, Carmine Caridi, a
specialist in mob and tough-guy roles,
routinely passed the screener tapes on to
a friend in Illinois, who transferred them to
DVD format and bootlegged them over
the Internet, the FBI said.
While Caridi played Detective Vince Gotelli on NYPD Blue for five
years in the 1990s, his film roles have typically been hoods and
mafiosi, including parts in The Godfather Parts II and III and a
television production called Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia
Wife.
His friend, Russell Sprague, was under arrest yesterday after police
found about 100 illegal copies of prominent new films at his home, as
well as illegal duplication equipment for transferring films from VHS to
DVD. He was due to appear in court in Chicago to answer charges
of criminal copyright infringement.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=484149