A 25-year-old Brooklyn man has been found guilty of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement in what the Recording Industry Association of America describes as the first-ever federal trial for online criminal copyright infringement primarily featuring music.
Barry Gitarts was convicted Thursday by a federal jury in Virginia, according to the U.S Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. He now faces up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and three years of supervised release. In addition, he must "make full restitution" to record labels.
This is no mere file sharing case, so if you share the odd file now and again, you don't need to worry about facing charges like this. Under the pseudonym "Dextro," Gitarts was charged with administering a server in Texas for an underground file sharing group called Apocalypse Production Crew.
APC members traded music, games, movies and software amongst themselves but trial testimony portrayed APC as what the RIAA termed a "first provider" or "release group" of pirated content.
According to the RIAA, evidence presented in the case showed that he received payment from the leader of the group in return for this work.
"For the first time ever, a criminal online music piracy case wentto trial, and the jury rendered a swift and unanimous verdict," saidBrad Buckles, executive vice president of the RIAA's anti-piracydivision. "The crimes committed here – as well as the harm to themusic community – are severe, and so are the consequences.
"Wecongratulate and thank the U.S. Attorney's office for its work on thiscase and the larger crackdown against the internet piracy rings thatare responsible for leaks of pre-release music weeks and sometimesmonths before retail release. Groups like APC that specialize inleaking pre-release music are at the top of the piracy pyramid and theefforts of federal law enforcement have dealt a real blow to thesekinds of operations."
Gitarts appears to be the 15th APC member to be convicted forcriminal copyright infringement as part of U.S. Department of Justice'slong-running Operation Fastlink campaign, but his is the first case that went to trial. An RIAA spokesman told Wired.com that the two new wrinkles in this caseare that it went to trial and that the charges centered on music.
U.S. District Court Judge Liam O'Grady will sentence Gitarts on Aug. 8.
Photo: lamdachialpha
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