(Note: Copywronged is a 13 part blog of the backstory behind the 2019 Orphan Works Trial. You have come in the middle of story. Click back to beginning for the FULL story )
2016 was more of the same: more offers to plead guilty with no acknowledgment of the legal debate, just to plead guilty and allow the government to "help" me.
As Homeland Security expanded their reach by contacting members of Heidi's family and former Edge Video employees, I repeated my mantra to Heidi: "I will plead guilty, all you have to do is say the words." But again, she never did. Ever.
After waiting six months from the 2015 search warrant, I started up lostmoviesfound.com. I knew I was never going to plead guilty to copyright infringement unless I had to save Heidi from prosecution. But nothing happened. I had already lost the stores, had no way to make an income, and believed (and still believe) that what I was doing was legal.
Why shouldn't I continue? Because a bully with a badge told me not to? Besides, I was never really "warned" repeatedly, like the government likes to say. I was told to PLEAD GUILTY. My lawyer summed it up well during the trial: "If this was such a simple case to prove, the government wouldn't need five cartons of exhibits and 50 witnesses."
The Orphan Works trial was the first of its kind in the United States, which means one of two things was happening:
The U.S. government was trying to enhance copyright law by making an example of me as a warning to anyone doing the same thing. (Which is doubtful, as it's been four years since the trial, and there are still hundreds, possibly thousands, of websites selling the exact same titles on DVD—movies that have never had an authorized DVD release.)
2. This case was a pretextual prosecution, meaning the copyright case was a façade for a real, more serious case, which for whatever reason, the U.S. government believes I was involved in. But they can't prove it. This happens all the time in law enforcement, but what if I'm not involved in this second case? How can that be portrayed as justice?
Next time, we'll discuss other developments in the Walmart Theft Ring as my case slowly crawled towards an indictment and trial.
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