Five men face prison time after getting busted for operating Jetflicks, one of the largest illegal streaming services in the US.
An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Information’s Washington DC field office found the site hosted hundreds of thousands of reproduced television show episodes and movies, including those from Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and Vudu – amassing a catalogue larger than all of these streaming platforms combined.
The men – Kristopher Dallmann, Douglas Courson, Felipe Garcia, Jared Jaurequi, and Peter Huber – committed conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, a federal judge in Las Vegas ruled.
Dallmann, the group’s leader, was additionally convicted of two counts of money laundering by concealment.
“Digital piracy is not a victimless crime. As these convictions demonstrate, the FBI will indeed investigate those who illegally profit from the creative works of others,” spokesperson David Sundberg said.
The illegal service charged customers $9.99 per month, generating millions of dollars in subscription revenue, according to the US justice department.
The justice department said in a statement on Friday that “the Jetflicks group used sophisticated computer scripts and software to scour pirate websites for illegal copies of television episodes, which they then downloaded and hosted on Jetflicks servers. The group reproduced hundreds of thousands of copyrighted television episodes without authorization”.
Evidence presented showed the scheme began as early as 2007.
Dallmann faces up to 48 years in prison while his co-conspirators face up to five years.