Two computer programmers in Las Vegas have pleaded guilty to multiple criminal copyright and money laundering charges related to operating one of the biggest illegal television show and movie streaming services in the United States.
The shuttered services iStreamItAll and Jetflix combined had more content than Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Hulu, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, which made the announcement on Dec. 13.
Darryl Julius Polo, a.k.a. djppimp, 36, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, one count of criminal copyright infringement by distributing a copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution, one count of copyright infringement by reproduction or distribution, one count of copyright infringement by public performance and one count of money laundering.
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In a separate proceeding today, co-defendant Luis Angel Villarino, 40, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.
Sentencing for both defendants is set for next March.
iStreamItAll (ISIA) permitted users to stream and download copyrighted television programs and movies without the permission of the relevant copyright owners.
Defendant Polo admitted that he reproduced tens of thousands of copyrighted television episodes and movies without authorization, and streamed and distributed the infringing programs to thousands of paid subscribers located throughout the U.S.
Specifically, Polo admitted ISIA offered more than 118,479 different television episodes and 10,980 individual movies. Polo sent out emails to potential subscribers highlighting ISIA’s huge catalog of works and urging them to cancel those licensed services and subscribe to ISIA instead.
According to the DOJ, Polo obtained infringing television programs and movies from pirate sites around the world — including some of the world’s biggest torrent and Usenet NZB sites specializing in infringing content — using various automated computer scripts that ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Specifically, Polo used sophisticated computer programming to scour global pirate sites for new illegal content; to download, process, and store these works; and then make the shows and movies available on servers in Canada to ISIA subscribers for streaming and downloading.
Polo also admitted to running several other piracy services, including a Usenet NZB indexing site called SmackDownOnYou — earning more than $1 million from his piracy operations.
Other defendants in the case are scheduled to go to trial starting on Feb. 3, 2020.