Washington, D.C. – Michael Dwayne Logan, a 31-year-old Baltimore, Maryland man, entered a pre-Indictment guilty plea today to Unauthorized Recording of Motion Pictures in a Motion Picture Exhibition Facility in 2007, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich and U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced.

The plea was entered before the Honorable Richard W. Roberts, U.S. District Court Judge. Sentencing is scheduled for October 28, 2008. Logan faces a possible statutory sentence of up to 6 years of incarceration, a $500,000 fine, an order of restitution, 2 years of supervised release, and an order of forfeiture and destruction. Under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, the defendant faces a likely sentencing range of 18 to 24 months of incarceration. In addition, the court could order as much as $48,632 in restitution, which represents the cost to the theater for the right to display the films at issue.

According to information presented to the court by the government, on November 27, 2007, Logan was placed under arrest by D.C. Metropolitan police officers as he was in the process of recording the Disney motion picture, Enchanted, at Regal Gallery Place Stadium 14, 701 7th Street, NW, Washington, D.C., following surveillance conducted by investigators of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), an industry trade group that represents major producers and distributors of entertainment, including motion picture studios.

Logan’s high-definition video camera was seized incident to his arrest. According to the Statement of Offense, which was filed with the Court and agreed to by the defendant, forensic examination of the camera’s internal hard drive revealed that Logan had recorded approximately 50 minutes of the film. The analysis also revealed the presence of numerous similarities between Enchanted and pirated copies of other first run motion pictures acquired by MPAA. Illegal copies of 20th Century Fox’s 28 Weeks Later had been purchased by MPAA investigators on the streets of New York City on May 14 and 15, 2007. On those dates, the movie had been released in theaters and was not available from legitimate sources for private purchase. Forensic analysis revealed a pattern of activity establishing a connection between such pirated copies and Logan’s recording of “Enchanted.” During the plea proceedings, Logan admitted that he had videotaped the movie, 28 Weeks Later, at its theatrical release at Regal Gallery Place Stadium 14 on May 11, 2007.

In announcing the guilty plea, Acting Assistant Attorney General Friedrich and U.S. Attorney Taylor commended the work of FBI Special Agent Paige Pinson, Washington Field Office, and the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department as well as the staff of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Legal Assistant Lisa Robinson. They also commended Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sherri L. Schornstein and Jonathan W. Haray and Trial Attorney Clement McGovern of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, who are prosecuting the case.