RCMP Charge maVen cammer
Anyone into downloading pirate movies from the internet over the last few years likely knows that the label ‘maVen’ on a video release was usually a mark of a high quality ‘cammed’ movie. After dozens of major releases and investigations by the FBI and Canadian police, ‘maVen’ now faces 6 months in jail.
Between 2004 and 2006, not many movie release groups could keep up with the mighty ‘maVen’ when it came to releasing quality ‘Telesync‘ versions of pirated movies onto the internet. From great versions of the ‘Bourne Supremacy’, ‘Collateral’ and ‘Spongebob Squarepants’ in 2004, through to their 2005 releases ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ and ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ to name just a few, maVen consistently delivered the goods. 2006 saw ‘maVen’ releases of serious heavyweight movies including ‘Underworld Evolution’, ‘Mission Impossible 3′, ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’, ‘Cars’ and ‘Superman Returns’. (full list available here).
Then, at the end of July 2006, ‘maVen’ releases mysteriously came to an abrupt halt.
According to reports, an FBI investigation into ‘maVen’ had been running for some time and was handed to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in April 2006.
“He was referred to us by the FBI,” said RCMP Staff Sgt. Noel St-Hilaire. “They had an investigation in the States.”
In September 2006, it all started coming together for the RCMP. Assisted by information from the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, police arrested Geremi Adam (now 25) outside a Montreal theater after allegedly ‘camming’ the movies “How to Eat Fried Worms” and “Invincible.” They seized his laptop and other equipment and later released him, only for him to be arrested again at another theater just a month later.
According to the police, Geremi Adam had been selling copies of movies on the internet using the alias ‘maVen’ (asking between $300 and $1,000 each), which were then re-sold on the web and the streets. There had previously been rumors on the internet that ‘maVen’ had been dealing with commercial pirates but both sets of allegations are yet to be proven. Although ‘maVen’ releases ceased, another group called ‘maVenssupplieR‘ immediately took up the slack.
Following Adam’s arrest came a 14 month wait as the police combed computer systems and equipment looking for evidence to convict him. He now faces two counts of distributing copyright material on the internet.
However, luckily for Adam, he was arrested before tough new legislation was introduced to crack down on movie cammers in Canada, so he will escape the most severe punishments, unlike Louis-Rene Hache who was caught recently by the police and faces two years in jail.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Noel St-Hilaire explained: “Unfortunately at the time there was no legislation that forbid anyone from filming in a cinema. There’s not much we could do then other than issue a warning.”
Geremi Adam will appear in court on 30th January 2008 where he will face the possibility of a $25,000 fine and six months in jail.
In some investigations of my own I was looking at some old maVen NFOs. As per the last release here, they indicate in their notes that they miss their old french friend Geremi Adam who’s computers were confiscated. So the speculation of a bust was correct all along. If Geremi is convicted of indeed selling his cams, that would be a shame as the golden rule of piracy is to not be selling it, only sharing. Again it is proven to us that the far reaching tentacles of corporate america have the stronghold on our Canadian political system and our police force. For shame, and too bad we can’t do anything about it.
source: Written by enigmax on December 05, 2007
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