honey01 wrote:

Federal prosecutors have busted an international movie-pirating operation that caused “tens of millions of dollars in losses” for film production studios over the course of nine years, court filings reveal.

George Bridi, Umar Ahmad and Jonatan Correa belonged to a copyright-infringement crew called “The Sparks Group” that posted “nearly every movie released by major production studios” online, according to indictments unsealed Tuesday.

The trio allegedly duped distributors in Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey and Canada into mailing them advance Blu-Ray and DVD copies of movies and television shows. The group then cracked copyright protections on the discs and posted the movies and TV shows online ahead of official release dates, prosecutors say.

<snip>

The crew used signature filenames like “SPARKS,” “DRONES,” “ROVERS,” “GECKOS,” and “SPRINTER” to brand their pirated content, prosecutors said. Other members of the Sparks Group “further reproduced and disseminated” the movies from servers the crew controlled, prosecutors said.


More~

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-movie-pirates-bust-20200825-p6hiwexxxbd47faukjgvftfqyq-story.html
https://torrentfreak.com/us-indictments-and-raids-of-piracy-group-members-in-the-scene-throw-top-tier-piracy-world-into-chaos-200826/


Pretty sad development :-(
Sorry if already shared.. couldn't find it posted.

Quote:

One of the key members of Scene piracy group SPARKS has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit copyright infringement. The US Government signed a plea deal with Jonatan Correa, who admitted being part of the notorious Scene group. While the offense is punishable by a maximum sentence of five years in prison, both parties agreed to a guideline of 12 to 18 months.

snip

Correa was the only defendant arrested in the US last summer. After being placed in custody in Kansas, the defendant was released on a $75,000 bail bond the next day. Initially, he maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty but that changed yesterday.

Quote:

No Prison Sentence

Yesterday, Correa received his sentence from a federal court in New York. After reviewing the positions of the prosecution and defense, US District Court Judge Richard M. Berman sentenced the former Scene member to time served and 27 months of supervised release.

Initially, Judge Berman proposed a three-month prison sentence followed by two years of supervised release. However, defense lawyer David Wikstrom tabled a proposal for Correa to serve the first three months in a Community Confinement facility instead.

The fact that Correa owns a business that employs dozens of people was the main reason for the defense to request detainment in a Community Confinement facility. This will allow the former Scene member to continue working while being in custody.

Judge Berman further noted that the purpose of the supervised release it to integrate Mr. Correa back into society. If it is shown that this goes well, the court is happy to grant an early termination.