A 37-year-old Memphis resident, Steven R. Hale, has been arrested for allegedly stealing unreleased movie discs and distributing pirated content online. Hale, who worked for a multinational company that manufactured DVDs and Blu-rays for major studios, is accused of stealing numerous pre-release discs between February 2021 and March 2022.

According to the Justice Department, Hale sold the stolen physical media through e-commerce platforms. The theft included high-profile titles such as “F9: The Fast Saga,” “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” “Godzilla v. Kong,” “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” “Dune,” and “Black Widow.”

In a particularly damaging case, Hale allegedly ripped “Spider-Man: No Way Home” from a Blu-ray disc by circumventing encryption protections and shared the digital copy online more than a month before its official release. The DOJ reports this unauthorized version was downloaded “tens of millions of times,” resulting in estimated losses of “tens of millions of dollars” for the copyright holder.

Hale faces one count of interstate transportation of stolen goods, which carries a maximum 10-year sentence, and two counts of criminal copyright infringement, each carrying up to five years in prison.

In a separate case this week, New York prosecutors charged two StubHub contractor employees with stealing and reselling nearly 1,000 tickets to high-profile events, including Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, generating $635,000 in illegal profits. The suspects face up to 15 years imprisonment.