Movie pirate stole over 1,000 movie discs and posted them online

Steven Gale, 37, who is accused of movie piracy and stealing more than 1,000 Blu-ray and DVD discs, has taken a plea deal to reduce his sentence after the FBI said his piracy cost studios millions, ArsTechnica reports.

Gale stole DVDs and Blu-rays from the disc manufacturing plant he worked at. The company's clients included major film studios, and among the stolen films was Spider-Man: Homecoming, which was copied tens of millions of times, causing the studio losses.

Other films stolen by the defendant included The Matrix: Resurrections, Venom 2: Carnage, Sing 2, Fast and Furious 9: The Fast and the Furious, Dune, and many others. In total, Gale stole about 1,160 discs during his time at the company from February 2021 to March 2022.

According to the FBI, Gale's main goal was to beat studios to the punch in terms of releases in order to maximize financial gain. His scheme was first exposed in March 2022, but he was not arrested until early March 2025. It is believed that Gale was part of a larger investigation into the origins of Spider-Man.

The agreement signed by Gale will not only reduce his prison term, which is recommended to be as short as possible, but will also significantly reduce the projected losses for the film studios. According to new estimates by the US Department of Justice, the losses amount to no more than $40,000.

As part of the agreement, the Justice Department also agreed to drop one count of copyright infringement and another count of interstate transportation of stolen goods. Gale himself remains under investigation on other charges. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He will also be ordered to pay restitution to victims who can prove they were harmed by his activities.