The man charged with stealing Frances McDormand's Oscar statuette at an Academy Awards after-party appeared in court Wednesday but the quick resolution to the case that was expected did not emerge.
Terry Bryant wore a gray pinstriped suit instead of the blue jail jumpsuit of his previous court appearance and smiled politely throughout the very brief hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Bryant had been found eligible for so-called early disposition — a relaxing of legal formalities intended to bring a quick resolution to some cases.
But he remains charged with felony grand theft and faces up to three years in prison.
Bryant's attorney Daniel Brookman says Bryant's not-guilty plea stands. He insists this is "not a prison case" and expects a deal by the next hearing on May 1.
South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users
South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.
It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.
Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.
It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.
The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.
The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.
"While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent," Lee said.
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