Video piracy pays off

For established bootlegger Ralph Stevens of Film Chest Media Group, life is good . Blatant video piracy (a felony) has paid off. Law enforcement from the Department of Justice to the FBI and State Attorney’s are sometimes slow to pay attention to anything less then terrorism,murder or rape. Giving criminals like Ralph Stevens at least a temporary reprieve from prosecution .  In the meantime good old
Ralph has nothing to worry about but to grow his Film Chest Media Group movie empire.  And even get public attention through a  regional news paper for the wonderful business he is creating in the neighborhood.
In and around 2003/04 Ralph’s company Film Chest and
affiliates purchased a grouping of copyrighted films from
questionable third parties  and then proceeded to license
the copyrighted works to another distributor .Then known
as Digital One Stop, in Minneapolis for a nice piece of change
leaving the copyright holder holding the bag with considerable
damges and loss of business.Still mounting. Even after licensing of the movies in question to the third party. Film Chest and it’s alter ego Ralph Stevens proceeded to pirate and market the same movie titles , openly through the internet for over seven years. Ralph makes money the copyright holder sucks canal water,  so to say. Finally in 2012 a investigation gets underway by a prosecutorial agency. The over one year investigation of 120 pages finally confirms that  Ralph Stevens is a bootlegger. And a confirmed video pirate.
Terrorism is on the rise. The Department of justice and
the FBI have better things to do. But Ralph grows his
empire. Expanding from New York to Bridgeport Ct.
He becomes a welcomed local businessman in Bridgeport Ct.
with a film archive & restoration company.” The Archive”.
The CT Post writes a glowing article about Film Chest Media
Group. That’s how video piracy pays off. When you know what you are doing. Like Ralph.The new Archive restoration company claims to have rescued hundreds of old movies from abandoned  “Storage Bins”  One must wonder  of how many  of these  are free of copyright holders ?