Man who sold pirated copies of “Yoosuf” arrested

haveeru
The Maldives Police Service has arrested the man who had “leaked” and sold pirated copies of the recently released local movie “Yoosuf”. DVDs of the hit movie had been stolen as a copy of the movie was being dispatched to Lhaviyani atoll Naifaru.

The movie, which was directed by popular author/director Fathmath Nahula, was leaked not even a week after it had finished its successful theatrical run. According to Nahula, pirated copies of the movie was now available all over Male’ and in other atolls.

The Maldives Police Service said that the man they had arrested in connection to the case was a 33-year-old man from Naifaru called Hassaan Ali Fulhu.

Nahula said that Hassaan was the man who had been charged with bringing the movie to theatres in Naifaru. She also said that altogether 50 copies of the final print of the movie had been made to be shown in different islands of the Maldives.

“We released copies of the movie to the people charged with showing the movie in the islands after signing a big agreement,” Nahula said. “The DVD copy they were given had their name, address, island, and ID card number printed on it. Hassaan was given a DVD copy after he signed the agreement and we were very confident that he would honour the agreement.”

She said that one of the clauses in the agreement stated that if the DVD copy of the movie got leaked to the public by or due to the negligence of the person who signed the agreement, then the person would be held accountable and charged with a fine ranging between Rf100,00 and Rf500,000. The fine has to be paid within one month’s time, Nahula said.

Nahula said she had later found out that Hassaan had returned the DVD that she had entrusted to him after making illegal copies of the DVD.

“When he returned the DVD we had given him, he did not even return the tickets that had not been sold,” she said. “When asked about it, he said that he had forgotten about it and would return it later. He had made around 400 copies of the movie when he returned the original DVD to us. In the copies he had sold the place where his name had appeared on screen had been edited out. But his name and address was visible in two of the scenes.”

Police said that the producer’s decision to make the name of the person charged with the copy of the DVD appear onscreen had helped the Police immensely in capturing the person responsible. Police also said that they had confiscated the PC that Hassaan had used to create the illegal copies and some of the DVDs he had not yet sold.