South Barrington honored for nabbing 'the complete film pirate'

When South Barrington police accused a man of recording a film at the AMC 30 movie theater last April, they thought it was a fairly routine, straightforward case.

They soon learned he's suspected of being one of the top three members of the world's largest movie piracy operation.

"We didn't know who we had at first," detective Sam Lopez said.

He and other South Barrington officers were recognized Thursday night by the Motion Picture Association of America for what it called extraordinary work in helping strike down the major video piracy operation.

On April 10, officers arrested Gerardo Arellano, 32, of the 200 block of Grissom Lane in Hoffman Estates, after authorities said he illegally recorded "Hannah Montana: The Movie" while it was screened at the theater.

The ensuing probe led to the discovery in Arellano's home of 44,000 DVDs and CDs, as well as duplicating and labeling equipment, authorities said.

Police charged him with computer fraud, criminal use of a motion picture facility, online sale of stolen goods and unlawful use of a recording device. The case is being prosecuted in federal court.

Also arrested was Arellano's wife, 32-year-old Maribell Fernandez, who reportedly admitted bringing the camera to her husband at the theater.

MPAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Kaltman said Arellano's arrest represented significant progress in the association's anti-piracy efforts, because a person doing what he is accused of doing is "the complete pirate" - one who personally records the films, makes them available on the Internet for a fee, and sells hard copies of the stolen films.

At the time of Arellano's arrest, the MPAA already had the South Barrington theater under surveillance.

That's because movie prints have digital watermarks that can be found by analyzing images from a pirated film, thus tracking them to the theater of origin, Kaltman said. A significant number of pirated copies had been traced to South Barrington.

From the moment of Arellano's arrest, 150 to 200 hours of police work were required to compile the case against him, Lopez said.

Nine South Barrington police officers were honored Thursday for the roles they played in the case. MPAA representatives personally awarded the officers at Thursday's village board meeting.

Not all nine were directly involved, but some were honored for stepping up patrol duties while colleagues' time was consumed by the piracy probe.

The MPAA presented its Exceptional Duty Award to Lopez and officers Anthony Polse and Matt Nagy. The Honorable Service Award went to Sgt. Sam Parma and officer Jeff Lang, while officers Andrew Chomor, Alex Cruz, Michael Przybylski and Scott Bialas all received the Excellent Police Duty Award.

Kaltman said this level of recognition of a police force is the exception, not the norm.

Movies recorded from theater screens represent about 90 percent of pirated films around the world, Kaltman said. Their quality differs widely, but quality is less important in the piracy market than the speed at which they can be distributed internationally and on the Web after their U.S. theatrical release, she said.

Piracy: MPAA had theater under surveillance