Convicted Man Drops Name Suppression Bid
Staff Reporter

A Wellington man convicted over an attempt to sell advance footage from the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, has abandoned a move to keep his name secret.

Predrag Dordevich, 36, had appealed to the High Court at Auckland over an earlier district court decision not to grant him permanent name suppression.

However, his lawyer Lester Cordwell said yesterday he had advised his client not to carry on with the appeal, which had now been abandoned.

In August, Dordevich had been sentenced to 12 months' supervision and a course of psychological counselling after earlier admitting one charge of receiving three videotapes and another of dealing in a reproduced document. Judge David Robinson said at the time that Dordevich promoted the sale of two tapes over the Internet as "exclusive, never seen before" footage of the film.

The asking price for a raw 90-minute tape of the film was US$50,000 (NZ$111,500). There was also a one-minute digital video tape available. No footage was sent overseas or broadcast on the Internet. Dordevich was arrested after police negotiated to buy the tapes.

Mr Cordwell said a decision was not needed by the court after the decision to abandon the appeal.

He said after reviewing other cases, he advised his client he was very unlikely to be granted permanent name suppression.