If a streaming service sounds too good to be true, it probably is. In the case of Jetflicks, it was too good to be legal.
A federal jury in Las Vegas convicted five defendants for their roles in a complex scheme to rip popular television shows and award-winning movies from pirate sites and bundle them into a streaming service called Jetflicks, the Justice Department said in a statement on Thursday. . According to the indictment, Jetflicks operated as a subscription streamer that allowed users to watch and download copyrighted television shows and movies without the permission of the copyright owners.
“The defendants operated Jetflicks, an illicit streaming service that they used to distribute hundreds of thousands of stolen television episodes,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a statement. . According to the Department of Justice, the group ripped off thousands of copyrighted television episodes generating a mass of content greater than “the combined catalogs of Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and Amazon Prime.”
For a $10 monthly subscription fee, users could watch shows on multiple devices and platforms within days of new episodes appearing on legitimate services and channels, officials said.
“The defendants ran a platform that automated the theft of television shows and distributed the stolen content to subscribers,” said Assistant Director in Charge David Sundberg of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, in a statement.
The five are Kristopher Dallmann, Douglas Courson, Felipe García, Jared Jaurequi and Peter Huber. The indictment claims that the box obtained content from pirate sites such as SickRage (also known as SickChill), Sick Beard, SABnzbd and TheTVDB and offered it in one place to subscribers. At one point, Jetflicks claimed to have more than 37,000 paid users and 183,200 television episodes. Authorities estimated the monetary damage to program owners would run into the millions.
Like a legitimate business, Jetflicks eventually ran into problems, including subscribers sharing usernames and passwords, authorities alleged in the indictment. Officials also said the group attempted to disguise the site as an entertainment service for airline travelers after it faced incoming lawsuits to remove unlicensed content.
“When complaints from copyright holders and problems with payment service providers threatened to bring down the multibillion-dollar illicit enterprise, the defendants attempted to disguise Jetflicks as an aviation entertainment company,” Sundberg said.
And just like in the legitimate business world, about seven years after Jetflicks started, one member of the group broke away to launch a new competitive initiative, officials said.
Darryl Julius Polo, also known as djppimp, launched iStreamItAll, which allowed users to stream and download TV and movies, the indictment claims. iStreamItAll (ISIA) subscription plans had a monthly fee of $19.99, plus quarterly, semi-annual, and annual options. Like Jetflicks, ISIA did not have permission to provide content, officials said. Polo, a computer programmer, pleaded guilty in 2019 to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and one count of criminal copyright infringement. Polo was sentenced to 4.75 years in prison and ordered to pay $1 million.
Jetflicks also had its own organizational structure, authorities alleged. Dallman led operations, while Courson and Jaurequi helped with management involving strategic decisions, hiring, and dealing with vendors and payment processors. Programming and coding was done by Dallman, Polo and Huber, who wrote and reviewed computer scripts for the website and mobile applications. That group also handled web design, customer interface and technical support, officials said.
In 2016, an undercover agent aired an episode of the sci-fi show. The OA, which aired on Netflix, according to the indictment. The agent also downloaded two episodes of a dystopian series, 12 monkeysleading to distribution of the episodes without the permission of the copyright owner, authorities wrote.
Courson, Garcia, Jaurequi and Huber each face a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and Dallmann faces a maximum sentence of 48 years in prison, according to the Department of Justice. A sentencing date has not been set.