United States v. Cross

Earnest Cross, Richard Denney, and Diana Fleek (defendants) were convicted of conspiracy to willfully infringe the copyrights of multiple motion pictures for purposes of commercial advantage as well as the substantive charge of copyright infringement. The charges arose from a video-rental store Cross and Denney co-owned called Porky’s. Fleek worked at Porky’s and was Cross’s live-in girlfriend. In addition to offering legitimate copies of movies for rent, Porky’s also rented unauthorized copies. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated Porky’s after receiving complaints from a competitor video store but halted the investigation after it was made public in the media. FBI officers visited Porky’s, told Cross to stop selling illegal copies, and instructed him on how to identify unauthorized copies based on a review of each tape. Cross and Denney removed their inventory of unauthorized tapes from the store. Months later, the FBI received new complaints about Porky’s selling illegal copies and placed an undercover agent in the store as a part-time employee. That new investigation confirmed that Porky’s continued to rent unauthorized copies. Fleek showed the undercover agent how to remove labels from original tapes and transfer them to unauthorized copies. Additional agents posing as customers rented several unauthorized tapes from Porky’s. Cross, Denney, and Fleek appealed their convictions, arguing, among other points, that the United States failed to prove that they acted willfully.