Tech Shout!

Jorge Romero, a man from Chicago is being charged with leaking the season premier as well as three other episodes of the hit TV show, ‘24’ after he uploaded them on to a Web site.

The popular TV series “24” stars Kiefer Sutherland as agent Jack Bauer, who works in a fictional anti-terror unit in the US government. The show is presented in real time, with each show representing a day in the life of Bauer.

The FBI’s criminal complaint that was filed on Friday, in Los Angeles, charges Romero with uploading copyrighted material to a publicly accessible computer network knowing the work was intended for commercial distribution, a felony that carries a statutory maximum sentence of three years in federal prison.”

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Romero, 24, now has to face up to three years in prison as he illegally uploaded pirated episodes of the Fox series show onto an online video hub.

In fact, Twentieth Century Fox, which produces “24”, issued a statement supporting the FMI investigation.

Apparently, Fox employees discovered the illegal uploads on a site called LiveDigital on January 8, 2007. Later, on April 4, special agents with the FBI interviewed Romero, who admitted that he had obtained the pirated copies from another Web site.

Romero also admitted that he uploaded the episodes of 24 to LiveDigital before they were actually aired by Fox, and that he put links to the uploads on another Web site as well.