Five men face prison terms after being arrested for operating Jetflicks, one of the largest illegal streaming services in the United States.
An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Information’s Washington, D.C., field office found that the site hosted hundreds of thousands of streamed episodes of television shows and movies, including those from Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and Vudu, amassing a catalog bigger 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 leader of the group, was also convicted of two counts of money laundering by concealment.
“Digital piracy is not a victimless crime. “As these convictions demonstrate, the FBI will investigate those who illegally profit from the creative works of others,” said spokesman David Sundberg.
The illegal service charged customers $9.99 a month, generating millions of dollars in subscription revenue, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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.”
The evidence presented showed that the plan began as early as 2007.
Dallmann faces up to 48 years in prison, while his accomplices face up to five years in prison.
