Hollywood fired off significant anti-piracy broadsides thisweek as eight people faced charges for their roles in the illegal distributionof Star Wars: Episode III days before the picture's global release.

In a separate case, RonaldRedding pleaded to illegally distributing a "screener" copy of MillionDollar Baby, the Warner Bros drama that won four Oscars earlier this yearincluding best picture and best actress.

The Star Wars casedemonstrates Hollywood's determination to bring to justice people involvedin every stage of copyright infringement.

Albert Valente of Lakewood, California, has pleaded guilty to a felony criminal copyrightcharge for stealing a copy of Episode III from the post-productionfacility where he worked and illegally distributing it to others.

After Valente loaned thecopy to Jessie I. Lumada of Long Beach, California, the disc allegedly changed hands between six otherCalifornia-based individuals. They are Ramon G Valdez of Long Beach, Michael J Fousse of Monrovia, Dwight Wayne Sityar of La Crescenta, Stephani RelkoGima of Los Angeles, Joel de Sugan Dimanno of Los Angeles, and Marc D Hoaglin of Huntington Beach.

Hoaglin allegedly uploadedthe film onto the internet on May 18, and is charged with a felony under therecently enacted Family Entertainment Copyright Act. If foundguilty, he faces up to three years in prison.

The other seven individualsare charged with misdemeanors that each carry up to one year in federal prison.

Meanwhile it remainedunclear last night how Redding,of Linthicum Heights, Maryland, came into possession of the disc.

He is not listed as a memberof the Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences, BAFTA LA, or the Writers Guild of America. Calls toWarner Bros, the Directors Guild of America, and the Screen Actors Guild were unreturnedat time of writing.

"The charges handed downtoday by the US Attorney prove that forensic markings on screeners and earlycopies of movies are doing their job in locating movie pirates," MPAA chairmanand chief executive officer Dan Glickman said.