For three awards seasons this veteran character actor handed his screener tapes to a man in Illinois who copied them to disc and put them online — and in 2004 became the first person the Academy has ever thrown out.
The full story
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expelled Carmine Caridi on 3 February 2004 — the first expulsion in its history — after tracing pirated copies of five films to the watermarked screener tapes sent to him as a voter. He had passed them to Russell Sprague of Homewood, Illinois, who pleaded guilty to felony criminal copyright infringement. Caridi faced no criminal charge, but in November 2004 US District Judge Stephen Wilson ordered him to pay Warner Bros. $300,000.
The clues we handed out
— The tapes were watermarked. That is how they were traced back to him.
— A federal judge later ordered him to pay one studio $300,000 over the same tapes.
— The man in Illinois pleaded guilty to felony copyright infringement. The actor himself was never criminally charged.
— He worked for decades in crime films and cop shows, almost always in supporting parts.
— Initials: C.C.
How this case played
ALLEGEDLY* edition No. 50. Three strikes to name Carmine Caridi, with a free clue
unlocked after every miss.
*A blind item you can check. Every puzzle is drawn from the public record —
court records, official rulings, and moments that unfolded on live television — and the
records are linked above. Allegedly.
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