Seven accused movie pirates who pleaded guilty to copying and distributing Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith face up to one year in prison when they are sentenced on April 12, the United States Attorney's Office in Los Angeles said Wednesday.

An eighth person, Marc Hoaglin, upload the movie onto Bittorrent, a peer-to-peer file sharing site, where it debuted the night prior to its May 2005 release.

Hoaglin, who worked at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., pleaded guilty in December to one felony count of uploading a pre-release copyrighted work onto the Internet. He faces up to three years in federal custody. Sentencing is on March 6.

The convictions mark an ongoing struggle by Hollywood studios to stem the annual loss of billion of dollars to movie pirates.

By 2007, Internet users will access, download and share information equivalent to the content of the entire Library of Congress more than 64,000 times daily, according to IDC Research. The Motion Picture Association of America estimates that authorities seized more than 76 million DVDs in the past year. 

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Source : InformationWeek