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 male defendants for their role in a complex scheme to scrape popular TV shows from pirated websites, the Justice Department said in a statement Thursday. and award-winning movies, bundled into a streaming service called Jetflicks. According to the indictment, Jetflicks, as a subscription-based streaming operator, allows users to watch and download copyrighted television shows and movies without the permission of the copyright holder.
“The defendants operated Jetflicks, an illegal streaming service they used to distribute hundreds of thousands of stolen television episodes,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, chief of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a statement stated in the statement. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the group stole thousands of copyrighted TV series and produced more content than “the combined catalogs of Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and Amazon Prime.”
For a monthly subscription fee of $10, users can watch shows on multiple devices and platforms within days of new episodes appearing on legitimate services and channels, authorities said.
“The defendants operate platforms that automatically steal television programming and distribute the stolen content to subscribers,” David Sandberg, assistant agent in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, said in a statement.
The five people are Christopher Dahlman, Douglas Coulson, Felipe Garcia, Jared Jaureki and Peter Huber. The indictment alleges that the cadre obtained content from pirate websites such as SickRage (also known as SickChill), Sick Beard, SABnzbd and TheTVDB and made it available to subscribers in one place. At one point Jetflicks claimed to have more than 37,000 paying subscribers and 183,200 TV episodes. Authorities estimate the economic losses suffered by project owners to be in the millions of dollars.
Like legitimate businesses, Jetflicks eventually ran into problems, such as subscribers sharing login names and passwords, authorities said in the indictment. Officials also said the group tried to pass off the site as an entertainment service for plane passengers after facing demands to remove unlicensed content.
“Defendants attempted to pass Jetflicks off as an aviation entertainment company when complaints from copyright holders and problems with the payment service provider threatened to overthrow this illegal multi-million dollar enterprise,” Sandberg noted.
As in the legal business world, about seven years after Jetflicks was founded, a member of the group broke away to start a new competing endeavor, officials said.
The indictment alleges that Daryl Julius Polo, also known as djppimp, launched iStreamItAll, which allowed users to stream and download television and movies. iStreamItAll (ISIA) subscription plans are $19.99 per month, plus quarterly, semi-annual and annual options. Like Jetflicks, ISIA does not have a license to provide content, officials said. Polo, a computer programmer, pleaded guilty in 2019 to one count of criminal conspiracy to commit 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 has its own organizational structure, authorities said. Dallman handles operations, while Courson and Jaurequi assist with management, including strategic decisions, recruiting and dealing with vendors and payment processors. Programming and coding were handled by Dallman, Polo, and Huber, who wrote and modified the computer scripts for the website and mobile application. The team is also responsible for web design, customer interface and technical assistance, authorities said.
In 2016, an undercover agent live-streamed an episode of a sci-fi show office automationThe show airs on Netflix, according to the indictment. The agent also downloaded two episodes of the dystopian series, 12 monkeysThis resulted in the episodes being circulated without the permission of the copyright holders, authorities wrote.
Courson, Garcia, Jaurequi and Huber each face up to five years in prison, while Dallmann faces up to 48 years in prison, according to the Justice Department. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
