FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CRM

THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2007 (202) 514-2007

WWW.USDOJ.GOV TDD (202) 514-1888

Illinois Man Sentenced To Two Years

In Prison For Selling
Thousands Of Copyrighted Video
Games And Movies
WASHINGTON – A Mount Vernon, Ill., man was sentenced in the Eastern District
of Virginia to two years in prison for the unlawful sale of copyrighted video games,
Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S.
Attorney Chuck Rosenberg of the Eastern District of Virginia announced today.

U.S. District Court Judge Leonie M. Brinkema also ordered Timothy W. Hall, 35, to
pay a $1,200 fine and serve a term of three years of supervised release.

On May 8, 2007, Hall pleaded guilty to one count of criminal copyright

infringement for his unlawful distribution of hundreds of thousands of copyrighted
works on his website. From at least March 2006 until September 2006, Hall had
operated the website, www.morbidbackups.net, from his residence in Mount
Vernon, Ill. On the site, Hall advertised the sale of hundreds of copyrighted video
games on recordable compact disc for the Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation 2, and
other video game platforms. He also offered DVDs containing copyrighted movies
and television programs. Hall admitted that from approximately 2001 until the fall
of 2006, he was paid more than $266,000 for the unlawful reproduction and
distribution of the copyrighted works.

On May 10, 2006, an online undercover agent of the FBI placed an order on the
defendant's website for copies of 70 different Xbox video game titles and 48
episodes of the television series “24” on DVD. On Aug. 7, 2006, the agent received
a package containing his order at a location in the Eastern District of Virginia. The
package contained 83 unlabeled Memorex DVDs which contained the copyrighted
works that the agent had ordered.

The defendant completed thousands of transactions including more than 100 sales of
pirated works to individuals located in the Eastern District of Virginia. The
defendant received more than $3,000 in revenues from these particular sales.
The case was investigated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s
Washington Field Office. The Entertainment Software Association, the Motion
Picture Association of America (MPAA), and their member companies assisted and
cooperated with the FBI’s investigation in this case. This case was prosecuted by
Senior Counsel Jay Prabhu of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and
Intellectual Property Section and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Morton J. Posner
of the Eastern District of Virginia.

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