Two of the movie studios whose screener tapes were found in the home of Russell Sprague, the Chicago-area man arrested last week by the FBI, have filed suit against Sprague and Carmine Caridi, the member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to whom the tapes were issued. Pictures and Columbia Pictures filed separate complaints Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, claiming that Sprague and Caridi have infringed on the studios' copyrights by duplicating and distributing copies of the films on both VHS and DVD. According to the Warners complaint, Caridi, a member of the Academy who received 'screeners' of each of the films from Warner Bros. for his personal consideration, made the films available to defendant Russell Sprague, and possibly others, for their unauthorized and illegal use, distribution, exhibition and duplication.

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