In a development that echoes the UK phone hacking scandal, film and camera tech industry veteran Michael Bravin has pleaded guilty to hacking into the computers of Band Pro Film and Digital while he was working for ARRI. As Deadline.com reports, Bravin had previously worked for Band Pro. He will serve two months in jail and pay $5,000 in restitution costs after entering a plea agreement.
And the story is still developing, with RED founder Jim Jannard posting this message today on REDuser.net. “My attorney informed me that my personal emails were apparently hacked. Unfortunately, this will get messy. Not what anyone would vote for. Certainly not me.” Jannard then went on to decline to discuss the matter further other than to say, “It is connected to this case…that is all I’d prefer to say other than I am exceedingly sad over this situation.”
Deadline.com posted that “Emails from several industry firms were accessed during the hacking, which occurred between December 2009 and June 2010. Bravin has been in the biz for decades, and has worked for Abekas Video Systems, California Communications and NBC Sports.”
There are no details yet as to which other companies were allegedly hacked.
Some in the production community have linked this to a 2010 Federal investigation of “unauthorized computer access” at ARRI Burbank. It should be started that ARRI was NOT the target of the investigation, and there is nothing to connect the two stories at this time. There is no actual information that in any way links these incidents.