United States v. Albert C. Drebin, Budget Films, Inc., Lawrence S. Fine and Bruce M. Venezia

Albert Drebin, Lawrence Fine, and Budget Films, Inc. have appealed their convictions, following a jury trial, on six counts (Counts Five through Ten) of willful and for-profit infringement, by vending, of copyrighted motion pictures, in violation of 17 U.S.C. § 104 ; three counts (Counts Two through Four) of interstate and foreign transportation of stolen and converted property—the copyrighted motion pictures—in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2314 ; and one count (Count One) of conspiracy to commit these offenses, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 . Bruce Venezia has appealed his conviction of conspiracy (Count One.)

Drebin was fined $20,000 and sentenced to concurrent one year prison terms on each of the counts, with all but three months suspended and probation for three years on condition that the fine be paid. Fine was fined $10,000 and sentenced to concurrent nine-months prison terms under the same conditions. Venezia received a suspended six months sentence and was placed on probation for two years and fined $1,000. Budget Films was fined a total of $18,000.

Factual Background

Budget Films is a corporation licensed to distribute, rent, and lease films produced by many major…