A 92-year-old Jewish man has emerged as one of the biggest pirate DVD makers in the United States.

But Hyman "Big Hy" Strachman, profiled this week by the New York Times, engages in the illegal activity to brighten the lives of US servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr Strachman, whose parents came to New York from Poland, is himself a World War Two veteran. In the past eight years he has sent some 300,000 copied discs, of films from The Artist to The King's Speech, overseas.

He pays to ship the boxes and has received hundreds of letters from soldiers thanking him for providing them with entertainment.

He told the New York Times he thought he had not been warned to stop by the authorities "because I'm an old-timer".

A spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America told the paper they were grateful "that the entertainment we produce can bring some enjoyment to [soldiers] while they are away from home".