United States v. Woodrow W. Wise, Jr., Dba Hollywood Film Exchange

Woodrow Wise, Jr. has appealed his conviction of criminal copyright infringement in violation of 17 U.S.C. § 104 . He was charged in a superseding indictment with seven counts of criminal copyright infringement by willfully and for profit vending copyrighted feature-length motion pictures, and also with seven counts of interstate transportation of stolen and converted property (the motion picture prints) in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2314 . Following a non-jury trial appellant was convicted on six of the seven copyright infringement counts. He was sentenced to consecutive terms of one year imprisonment on each of the six counts and on condition that he serve one month on each count in a jail-type institution, the execution of the remainder of the sentence was suspended and the defendant was placed on probation for five years. The court granted defendant’s motion for acquittal on the interstate transportation counts.

On appeal Wise challenges the constitutionality of 17 U.S.C. §§ 27 and 104, contests the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain his conviction, and argues that his conviction is precluded by collateral estoppel. We affirm the conviction on four counts and reverse on two…