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16 December 2019CopyrightRory O'Neill

Two plead guilty to iStreamItAll and Jetflicks piracy charges

US prosecutors are claiming victory after two computer programmers pled guilty late last week to being behind major film and TV streaming sites iStreamItAll and Jetflicks.

WIPR reported in August that the US Department of Justice (DoJ) had pressed charges against a total of eight individuals in connection with the sites.

Darryl Julius Polo, known online as ‘djppimp’, pleaded guilty last Thursday, December 12 to criminal copyright infringement and money laundering charges.

The following day, Luis Angel Villarino pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.

Polo ran iStreamItAll (ISIA), a Las Vegas-based subscription service which allowed users to download film and TV content.

He boasted to potential subscribers of having a catalogue larger than Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and Amazon Prime. In total, ISIA hosted more than 118,479 different television episodes and 10,980 individual movies.

ISIA gathered its content using automated computer scripts which scoured Torrent sites constantly.

Prosecutors said that Polo had acknowledged earning more than $1 million from his pirate activities.

Villarino admitted that he had worked alongside Polo as a computer engineer at Jetflicks, a separate streaming service focused on TV content.

Both sites were designed for a range of platforms, including smart TVs, video game consoles, set-top boxes, and smartphones.

The pair are due to be sentenced in March, with other defendants set to go on trial in February.

Some of the biggest streaming sites in the world are coming under increasing pressure from authorities and copyright owners.

Last month, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) secured $50 million in damages and a permanent injunction against live TV streaming site Omniverse.

A collaboration of different government agencies worldwide announced earlier this month that it had seized 1 million infringing domains this year, including pirate TV and film sites.

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28 August 2019   Eight individuals have been charged with conspiring to violate criminal copyright law by running two of the largest illegal streaming services in the US, the country’s Department of Justice has said.