A Canadian "cammer" -- a person who uses a camcorder to record movies in theaters, then releases them online or on disc -- was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in 2006 as a "personal favor" to an official of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association (CMPDA), even through the RCMP registered concern that it not be used as "the enforcement arm of industry," according to a Wikileaks cable published over the weekend by the website TorrentFreak.com. The arrest of Geremi Adam came at a time when it was being reported that 40-50 percent of all pirated movies could be linked to cammers operating in Montreal. (The figure was later revised to 18 percent.) "The [RCMP] officers said that IPR [intellectual property rights] holders could pursue legal action against suspects engaged in camcording via the civil code without needing to engage the RCMP. They acknowledged, however, that a conviction under the civil code would not result in prison time, and would usually involve a relatively small fine," the cable said. According to TorrentFreak, Adam was in fact sent to jail, where he began using drugs and shortly after his release died of an overdose.

02/05/2011