Copyright Piracy: The MPAA's Public Enemy Number One...

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Okay, not really, because they wouldn't dare touch this guy.

MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. — One of the world’s most prolific bootleggers of Hollywood DVDs loves his morning farina. He has spent eight years churning out hundreds of thousands of copies of “The Hangover,” “Gran Torino” and other first-run movies from his small Long Island apartment to ship overseas.

“Big Hy” — his handle among many loyal customers — would almost certainly be cast as Hollywood Enemy No. 1 but for a few details. He is actually Hyman Strachman, a 92-year-old, 5-foot-5 World War II veteran trying to stay busy after the death of his wife. And he has sent every one of his copied DVDs, almost 4,000 boxes of them to date, free to American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

With the United States military presence in those regions dwindling, Big Hy Strachman will live on in many soldiers’ hearts as one of the war’s more shadowy heroes.

“It’s not the right thing to do, but I did it,” Mr. Strachman said, acknowledging that his actions violated copyright law.
“If I were younger,” he added, “maybe I’d be spending time in the hoosegow.”

Capt. Bryan Curran, who recently returned from Afghanistan, estimated that from 2008 to 2010, Mr. Strachman sent more than 2,000 DVDs to his outfits there.

“You’re shocked because your initial image is of some back-alley Eastern European bootlegger — not an old Jewish guy on Long Island,” Captain Curran said. “He would time them with the movie’s release — whenever a new movie was just in theaters, we knew Big Hy would be sending us some. I saw ‘The Transformers’ before it hit the States.”

Jenna Gordon, a specialist in the Army Reserve, said she had handed out even more of Mr. Strachman’s DVDs last year as a medic with the 883rd Medical Company east of Kandahar City, where soldiers would gather for movie nights around personal computers, with mortar blasting in the background. Some knew only that the discs came from some dude named Big Hy; others knew not even that.

Howard Gantman, a spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America, said he did not believe its member studios were aware of Mr. Strachman’s operation. His sole comment dripped with the difficulty of going after a 92-year-old widower supporting the troops.

Link

 

[Maurice]

Now I know how to thwart the MPAA. All I have to do is get old.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

The headline should be "MPAA Can't Bust Hyman".

I like that everyone knew the DVDs were bootlegs but didn't care. Woohoo movie night!

 

[Guy Gardener]

Jesus, they're afraid of making a martyr.

Pussies.

If they busted him what would happen?

Bad press for a week.

Bah.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The headline should be "MPAA Can't Bust Hyman".

 

[Ayelbourne]

With the US Army funding a lot of those military-heavy movies, I can't help but wonder why they don't provide them to their soldiers free of charge anyway.

 

[lennier1]

Why not? They certainly didn't have any problem with suing a ten year old girl.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Because if they flinch when talking abut a 10 year old girl Hyman, it is they who is going to jail.

 

[lennier1]

Because if they flinch when talking abut a 10 year old girl Hyman, it is they who is going to jail.

Come back once you're sober again.

 

[Guy Gardener]

10 year old girls are being put in jail all over the world because they are downloading movies and music and you think it's funny to joke about how none of them have been saved by an inappropriate Christian name?

Shame.

SHAAAAAME!

 

[Guy Gardener]

It's written in on the front of every court house in Amerca (in latin.)

"Though the heavens may fall, let just prevail".

Could the MPAA stop the war?

Bring the troops home?

It's a stupid war started by a liar who was lying.

But if every soldier that had accepted or viewed one of Hymens Disks surrendered them selves to the MPs for a lengthy trial back home as defendants and expert witnesses, and that number of soldiers included, from how the article describes Hyman's "network" to be perhaps maybe 90 percent of the military stationed in the warzone?

What are the joint chiefs planning on doing next if they no longer have an army to play with?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Because if they flinch when talking abut a 10 year old girl Hyman, it is they who is going to jail.

Come back once you're sober again.

For him, that's equivalent to a permaban.

 

[Maurice]

With the US Army funding a lot of those military-heavy movies, I can't help but wonder why they don't provide them to their soldiers free of charge anyway.

The Army FUNDS movies? What?

 

[Roshi]

Welcome to the Military-Industrial Complex.
You're 50 years late!

 

[Caliburn24]

Bootlegged movies and TV shows are sold at every little Hajji'mart in Iraq and Afghanistan. 10 seasons of The Simpsons for ten bucks? Every episode of Lost for 20 bucks? Want the Avengers before it comes out in the states? No problem. And every single soldier bought them. Seriously, out of the hundreds of soldiers I knew during my 15 months in Iraq I can't think of a single one who did not partake of bootlegs.

If you want to prosecute the guilty at least 90% of the US armed forces who have been deployed would need to be locked up.

Don't let the terrorists win!

 

[Captain_Nick]

Bah, they're serving the nation, give them this one freebie

 

[Guy Gardener]

That's ridiculous Nick.

Hollywood might as well give these thieves a couple billion dollars.

Frankly.

If I were 70 thousand hillbillies who had to choose between war and jail...

I'd rather have the billions of dollars.

 

[Maurice]

Welcome to the Military-Industrial Complex.
You're 50 years late!

Name one theatrical motion picture "funded" by the U.S. Army.

 

[Roshi]

Transformers?