A man who uploaded the entirety of Deadpool, a 2017 popular movie, on his Facebook page is likely to face six months in Jail. The man identified as Trevon Franklin will soon face a California Court for the hearing of his case. If the U.S. government gets its way, the man will spend half a year in prison, according to various US media outlets.
A week after Deadpool was released in theaters, millions of people watched the film on a viral Facebook post by the account Tre-Von M. King.
The FBI found that the account belonged to Trevon Franklin, a 22-year-old in Fresno, California. Franklin had downloaded the movie from a file-sharing platform then uploaded the movie to his Facebook page, where it garnered 6,386,456 views, according to court documents.
ALSO READ: How piracy affects movie industry: The case of Black Panther
Many Facebook users told Franklin that his posting was illegal, but Franklin responded on Facebook by insisting he wouldn’t be punished. In one such post he wrote, “I got the ultimate way out of this, yall might be surprised on how I won’t go to jail but just become more famous.” In another he wrote, “I’m just laughing at these mfs who think they know what they talking I haven’t sold shit to anyone, or made copies.”
Franklin went on to create a Facebook group called “Bootleg Movies,” posted “EVERYBODY JOIN,” and told people he’d be posting more movies on the page.
He was indicted and arrested in June 2017.
