Craig S. Morford
United States Attorney
Hilliard H. Hester
Assistant U.S. Attorney
(615) 736-5151
MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO SELLING PIRATED MUSIC AND MOVIES
Nashville, TN - March 23, 2007. United States Attorney Craig S. Morford and Special Agent in Charge My Harrison, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Memphis Division, announced today that Decharmus Grover, Sr. has entered a guilty plea in federal court, admitting that he engaged in criminal copyright infringement by copying and selling music and films that were protected by federal copyright registrations. An FBI agent testified that he arrested Grover in November 2005 after Grover was observed copying and selling CDs and DVDs from the back of his car on Brick Church Pike in Nashville, Tennessee. Grover was found to be in possession of about 450 CDs and DVDs onto which copyrighted music and films had been recorded; numerous blank CDs and DVDs; recording equipment that was hooked up to his car battery; and almost $10,000 in cash.
United States Attorney Craig S. Morford stated: “Federal copyright law protects the artists and industries who invest their creativity and money by recording music and making films. Those people enjoy the exclusive right to control what happens to their products, and to seek a fair return on their investment by selling their products to the public. The unauthorized copying and selling of music and movies that belong to someone else is the same as stealing a CD or DVD from a store that sells such merchandise. Copyright violations cost the music and film industries millions of dollars a year in lost revenues. Federal law punishes criminal copyright violations, and violators in this district will continue to be prosecuted. ”
Grover faces a maximum of one year in prison and a possible $100,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for June 29, 2007. The United States was represented at sentencing Assistant U.S. Attorney Hilliard Hester.