Dewsbury man arrested for leaking Expendables 3

Anti-piracy police have arrested a Dewsbury man on suspicion of leaking a Hollywood blockbuster before its release date.

The 33-year-old was arrested this morning over the online broadcasting of action movie The Expendables 3.

He was taken to a West Yorkshire police station for questioning.

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The star studded film features an array of famous actors including Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham and Arnold Schwarzenegger and was set to hit the big screen in cinemas in the US on August 15 this year.

But around July 25 a high-quality version of the film appeared on the internet.

Detectives from the City of London Police unit arrested the Dewsbury man and a 36-year-old man at his home in Upton, Wirral, with support from uniformed officers from West Yorkshire Police and Merseyside Police.

The pair are believed to have stolen the film from a cloud based system before uploading it on to the internet.

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In the UK it is believed the leaked the Lionsgate/Millennium film was viewed hundreds of thousands of times which subsequently has had a significant financial impact on Lionsgate and Millennium Films, costing them millions of pounds in the UK alone.

Head of the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, Det Ch Insp Danny Medlycott, said: “Today’s operation shows you the significant impact intellectual property crime has on our creative industries, with millions of pounds being lost as a result of criminal actions.

“The public need to be aware that piracy is not a victimless crime. By downloading illegal music, film, TV and books, not only are you exposing your own computer to the risk of viruses and malware, but you are also putting hardworking people’s livelihoods at risk as piracy threatens the security of thousands of jobs in the UK’s creative industries.”