United States v. Armstead
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
524 F.3d 442 (2008)

- Written by Alex Ruskell, JD
Facts
David Armstead (defendant) was convicted on two felony counts of copyright infringement for selling 300 bootleg DVDs of unreleased movies to an undercover agent. The DVDs were made by videotaping the movies while they played in a theater and they were of generally poor quality. At the time the copies were made, the films were only available in theaters and their DVDs had not yet been released. Under the applicable law, a felony occurred when the violator sold at least 10 copies of the material with a total retail value of more than $2,500. On appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Armstead argued that he sold the DVDs to the agent for a total of $1,500 and that the retail value of the DVDs should be the DVDs’ black-market value.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Niemeyer, J.)
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