Pirate Site Admin Sentenced to Two Years Prison & €83.6 Million Damages

[samuelthegreat]

Pirate Site Admin Sentenced to Two Years Prison & €83.6 Million Damages

A man said to be the brains behind one of France's most popular streaming sites has been sentenced in his absence by a court in the suburbs of Paris. Currently on the run, the 41-year-old was sentenced to two years in prison and a shocking 83 million euros in damages after infringing the rights of companies including Disney, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros.

 

Way back in 2011, Streamiz was reported to be the second most popular pirate streaming site in France with around 250,000 visitors per day. The site didn’t host its own content but linked to movies elsewhere.

 

 

This prominent status soon attracted the attention of various entertainment companies including the National Federation of Film Distributors (FNDF) which filed a complaint against the site back in 2009.

 

Investigators eventually traced the presumed operator of the site to a location in the Hauts-de-Seine region of France. In October 2011 he was arrested leaving his Montrouge home in the southern Parisian suburbs. His backpack reportedly contained socks stuffed with almost 30,000 euros in cash.

 

The man was ordered to appear before the investigating judge but did not attend. He also failed to appear during his sentencing this Monday, which may or may not have been a good thing, depending on one’s perspective.

 

In his absence, the now 41-year-old was found guilty of copyright infringement offenses and handed one of the toughest sentences ever in a case of its type.

 

According to an AFP report, when the authorities can catch up with him the man must not only serve two years in prison but also pay a staggering 83.6 million euros in damages to Disney, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros and SACEM, the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers.

 

Streamiz is now closed but at its peak offered around 40,000 movies to millions of users per month. In total, the site stood accused of around 500,000,000 infringements, earning its operator an estimated 150,000 euros in advertising revenue over a two year period.

 

“This is a clear case of commercial counterfeiting” based on a “very structured” system, David El Sayegh, Secretary General of SACEM, told AFP. His sentence “sends a very clear message: there will be no impunity for pirates,” he added.

 

With an arrest warrant still outstanding, the former Streamiz admin is now on the run with very few options available to him. Certainly, the 83.6 million euro fine won’t ever be paid but the prison sentence is something he might need to get behind him.

 

SOURCE

[steven36]

They most likely want never see a penny of it,  they took his income away years ago,  it took them 7 years to even pass  judgment , so really France didn't do nothing but waste the tax payers money and  and this site has long been replaced by new ones  7 years ago - the present .   With all filelocker blogs on the Internet they can't even make a dent in it . It's so bad they go around making search engines delete  most listings and giving kodi addon devs warnings to stop linking to these sites. So  its a 100 times worse than it was in 2011 . the lure of easy money will always prevail  even when things get shut down today  as soon as the dust settles new ones take there place ..Even if they  could phase out filellocker and streaming sites  all together other stuff is already out that is more secure to take it's place.   they want never win, they will only make it hard on noobs but never on  a seasoned pirate.   

[dcs18]

Quote

Pirate Site Admin Sentenced to Two Years Prison & €83.6 Million Damages

No prizes for guessing why the youthful face of DKT27 came to mind.

[mona]

1 hour ago, dcs18 said:

No prizes for guessing why the youthful face of DKT27 came to mind.

 

Fortunately, no software developers' lobby (has it ever existed ?) has ever reached the strength compared to  that of entertainment industry.

So as for now   -  no threats for  @DKT27 !    Long live  DKT27 and long live nsane forums ! 

 

[dcs18]

I'm sure that must sound delightfully reassuring.

[steven36]

37 minutes ago, mona said:

 

Fortunately, no software developers' lobby (has it ever existed ?) has ever reached the strength of that in entertainment industry.

So as for now   -  no threats for  @DKT27 !    Long live  DKT27 and keep working hard !    

 

Years ago they use to go after software pirates back when usenet and ftps were still the thing.  but the software  industry gave up on it long ago in the sense of taking people to court  for it . They mostly use software protection now days to try to stop stuff from being cracked ,  But even Microsoft has not really done nothing since windows 7 to try to stop  users from cracking there software there next move was the Microsoft's Universal Windows Platform  and that got cracked before it could get off the ground even. But the  Windows software scene  has been sort of dead for years now it's more alive in Android than windows.

 

Even the 1st  warez forum  I joined  way back in 2006 when i  left using  old type sharing methods is still running today and they have  way more stuff that would interest the rights holders (ACE) . There is nothing on this site that interest Hollywood hardly  ever posted .  I   use Linux mostly so I don't need cracked windows software so really except for news post there is not much that even interest me  on here anymore.