According to an indictment unsealed this week, the four alleged members of the BitTorrent movie release group IMAGiNE have now been charged with one count of "Conspiracy to Commit Criminal Copyright Infringement," four counts of "Criminal Copyright Infringement," and one count of "Distribution of a Work Being Prepared for Commercial Distribution." Each count brings a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison.

The group, which TorrentFreak called "one of the P2P scene’s most prominent release groups," was busted up by federal authorities in September 2011. It is not very common for BitTorrent-related groups to be split apart with federal criminal charges brought against them.

Court documents filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia report that the lead defendant, Jeramiah B. Perkins (aliases: "Butch Perkins," "Stash," and "theestas") was arrested and then released on bail on Monday. The other defendants are Gregory Cherwonik, 53, of New York, Willie Lambert, 57, of Pennsylvania, and Sean Lovelady, 27, of California.

The four are accused of running their BitTorrent ring from September 2009 to September 2011, where they allegedly would "cam" new movies showing in theaters. While one person was capturing the video, someone else would capture the audio portion in theaters and drive-ins. Then, according to the indictment, the defendants would allegedly "digitally refine" and "edit" the audio and video files before releasing them over BitTorrent.

Specifically, the group is charged with seeding copies of The Men Who Stare At Goats, Avatar, Clash of the Titans, and others. In some cases, they took advantage of the movie theater’s infrared or FM audio system, usually used by people with hearing impairments. Both systems work by transmitting the audio from the control room to individual headsets equipped with a receiver.

In the indictment, Perkins, 40, is quoted as telling Lambert on the group’s message board in July 2010: "I called every local cinema to see what they broadcasted in," adding that "I told them a bs sob story bro…told the manager i had a hearing impaired daughter and she had a phobia about other peoples heads being on there in house equipment so i told them i was going to buy her one, so they would find out and tell me then…"

It appears that the group would often bring their own infrared receivers and would record audio directly from that device. Five days later, Perkins told the group to "wear the IR receiver high around your neck and just put the plugged in recorder in your pocket or somewhere hidden."

Perkins is now scheduled to be arraigned on May 9, 2012 in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia.