What to Know
- Franklin's upload reached 6 million views on Facebook.
- Franklin pleaded guilty to a federal class-A misdemeanor count of criminal copyright infringement.
A 22-year-old man was sentenced Thursday to about three weeks in lockup for violating federal copyright law by posting the superhero flick "Deadpool" to his Facebook page days after it opened in theaters.
Trevon Maurice Franklin used the screen name "Tre-Von M. King'' when he illegally uploaded the R-rated Marvel action film eight days after its February 2016 release, allowing it to be viewed for free on Facebook over six million times, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
He admitted in his plea agreement to downloading the Ryan Reynolds film from the free video streaming site Putlocker before uploading it to Facebook.
Franklin pleaded guilty to a federal class-A misdemeanor count of criminal copyright infringement, which carries a possible penalty of up to a year behind bars and a $100,000 fine.
Government prosecutors had asked Kronstadt to sentence Franklin to six months in prison, followed by a year of supervised release. The defense agreed with a pretrial services recommendation of one year of probation.
In a letter to the court, Franklin said he regrets posting the movie, now realizing that "every action has its consequences. I didn't think how serious the crime was that was being committed."
Franklin was scheduled to be sentenced last month but missed the Greyhound bus from Fresno, where he lives, his lawyer said. Kronstadt permitted Franklin to surrender to U.S. marshals later that week.
