Bootleg 'Hulk' Pummels Internet Pirate
By: Robert Gearty
Source: Daily News, New York
NEW YORK - Don't mess with the Hulk.
Kerry Gonzalez learned that lesson the hard way Wednesday when he pleaded guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to posting a bootleg of "The Hulk" on the Internet two weeks before the box-office blockbuster's release.
"I tried to defeat something that ultimately you can't," said Gonzalez, 24, of Hamilton, N.J., who will serve six months to a year in prison on a copyright-infringement rap.
Gonzalez, an insurance underwriter, said he was given an advance copy of "The Hulk" and put it on his home computer. He then put it on the Web, making it available to be downloaded.
Prosecutors said several hundred people got copies.
Court papers say Universal Studios had given the video to a New York ad agency. Gonzalez, who obtained his copy from a friend of an agency worker, tried to remove a security tag but was unable to do so.
Investigators traced the tag back to the ad agency and Gonzalez.
What he posted on the Internet was a rough, unfinished version of the movie. Those who saw it flooded an online gossip movie site with complaints about how the computer-generated monster looked.
Appropriately, Gonzalez came to court in a green suit and tie. "It's my nicest suit," he said.
During a brief news conference, Gonzalez, who faces sentencing Sept. 26, told reporters he hadn't even watched the movie.
His lawyer, Matthew Portella of Camden, N.J., cautioned reporters not to make Gonzalez angry. "You won't like him angry," he said.
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© 2003, New York Daily News.
