One of the most important cases involving the unauthorized dissemination of copyrighted material is about to end. What has been called “the largest hacking trial in history” due to the enormous amount of data generated in the process, more than 63 terabytes, did not last as long as expected; and for the accused, this is the worst news they could have received.
The five accused of running the Jetflicks and iStreamitAll pages were found guilty today by a federal jury in Las Vegas; and defense tactics try to declare a mistrial. The trial on the IPTV pages began with controversy, due to the use as evidence of an email sent to one of the accused; an email signed by a lawyer from one of the services affected by the content piracy, but who was not going to appear as a witness.
It was a technicality that the defense clung to without much success. A few days later, the jury did not hesitate to convict the five accused who nevertheless proclaimed their innocence, after three others agreed to avoid long prison sentences, which in some cases were as little as a year and a day.
Today, those convicted may regret not agreeing to similar deals, because their sentences are likely to be much harsher. Especially for the considered plot leader, Kristopher Dallmann, who risks up to 48 years in prison for managing the Jetflicks page, while his associates can be sentenced to up to 5 years in prison.
In its day, Jetflicks was one of the leading pirate alternatives to Netflix; In fact, for its users it was even better, because offered access to more series and films, obtained from various streaming services. At its greatest success, Jetflicks offered 10,500 movies and 183,000 episodes of TV series, obtained from sources including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu; The videos were obtained using automated code and distributed to tens of thousands of subscribers paying $9.99 per month.
The United States Department of Justice indictment alleged that Dallman and his associates obtained million dollar turnover
Jetflicks was one of the biggest pirate alternatives to Netflix
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Seeing the potential of such a service, one of the defendants, Darryl Julius Polo, left Jetflicks to create a competitor, called iStreamitAll; True to its name, this service was even more comprehensive, offering up to 10,980 movies and 11,479 episodes, costing $19.99 per month. Polo was one of those who reached an agreement to plead guilty to copyright infringement and money laundering offenses and receive a sentence of “only” 57 months in prison.
Therefore, the “greatest ordeal in history” ultimately only lasted a few days, although it was not the end; It now remains to confirm the sanctions that the condemned will suffer, even if the judge has not yet set a date.
