A man was sentenced Wednesday to six months of home confinement for selling more than 40 pirated DVDs of the HBO hit “Sex and the City.”
William Jefferson Philputt, 33, of Los Angeles pleaded guilty in April to one count of copyright infringement. U.S. District Judge Sterling Johnson also ordered Philputt to pay $817 in restitution to the Motion Picture Assn. of America.
The case against Philputt stemmed from an investigation into the copying of advance “screener” movies sent by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences before the Academy Awards. Investigators for Sony Pictures followed up on an Internet posting for the film “Big Fish” and learned it had been stolen from an academy member and copied.
A search warrant served at Philputt’s apartment turned up illegal copies of other movies, including “Kill Bill: Vol. 1,” “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” and the “Star Wars” films, authorities said. Philputt told investigators he copied a few movies but he mostly reproduced and sold episodes of “Sex and the City,” prosecutors say. 
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