A longtime staff member at the post production office where the hit film Sione's Wedding was edited has been found guilty of distributing a pirated copy of the film.

Frederick Junior Higgins, 39, was found guilty on charges of theft and distributing a copyrighted film at a defended hearing at Auckland District Court today.

Higgins admitted he made a DVD copy of Sione's Wedding at Digital Post in Epsom, where he had worked for 11 years, but said it was for his own use and he destroyed the DVD at work within two days.

The dreadlocked Higgins, whose good character was referred to by several former workmates, testified today that he made a copy of the film while working on the weekend of October 1 and 2, 2005.

He said he took the copy home to watch by himself, and then took it back to work shortly afterwards where he destroyed it with a stanley knife.

But Judge Josephine Bouchier concluded the pirated DVDs of the film being distributed in New Zealand and on the internet could only have come from Higgins.

Higgins, who was close to tears when Judge Bouchier delivered her decision, will be sentenced on July 18.

Judge Bouchier said Higgins was one of only five or six people who had the technical knowhow to make the DVD copy of the film's ungraded submaster from the new equipment at Digital Post.

It was this version of the film, minus credits, colour grading and much of the sound work, which was found in eight households and available for download on the internet as much as a month before the film hit New Zealand cinemas on March 31 last year.

Three other staff members testified they did not make copies of the film and Judge Bouchier did not agree with Higgins' counsel Louise Freyer that other staff or outsiders could have made the pirated copy which was found in the community.
She agreed there was no direct evidence showing that Higgins distributed the pirated versions of Sione's Wedding, "but the circumstantial facts lead to the inevitable inference that he's the person who distributed them".

John Barnett, chief executive of the $3.8 million film's producer South Pacific Pictures, was pleased with the decision.
"In one sense he might consider that it's the law of unintended consequences. Whether he intended to take it home to watch it on his own or not, this is what's happened," he said after the decision.

"I think it's a message that you don't deal in stolen goods, you don't deal in illicit works and you don't deal in pirated material."

Mr Barnett estimated the piracy cost between $700,000 to $1 million at the New Zealand box office, of which $300,000 would have gone back to the company to hand to investors, crew and the company itself.

He said the piracy was particularly costly in Manukau, where box office returns were expected to be highest because of the film's Polynesian content, but in fact ranked 10th nationwide.
"People weren't going to see it in Manukau because they had already seen it (on pirated DVD)," Mr Barnett said.
The film eventually grossed about $4 million, though a significant part of that went to the film's distributors and cinema exhibitors.

Mr Barnett also estimated the piracy cost the company about $200,000 from lost DVD sales.

He said pirated versions of the film had made their way to the United States, United Kingdom and Germany.

Ordinary New Zealanders were among those to effectively lose out as major investors in the film included the Government-funded agencies NZ Film Commission and New Zealand On Air.
"The taxpayer loses out through the Film Commission and NZ On Air but also through the loss of tax and GST on the legitimate operations," Mr Barnett said.

By ALASTAIR BULL

- NZPA

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