FBI busts illegal streaming site that boasts more content than Netflix, Amazon
FBI
busts illegal streaming site that boasts more content than Netflix, Amazon
0:33
Two programmers pleaded guilty to copyright charges in
association with two illegal streaming services, including one site that had
more content than Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime, according to the Department of Justice.
Darryl
Julius Polo, 36, pleaded guilty last week to running Las Vegas–based streaming
site iStreamItAll as well as working on the illegal streaming website
Jetflicks, the Justice Department announced Friday.
He also
pleaded guilty to money laundering, according to federal prosecutors.
Luis
Angel Villarino, 40, pleaded guilty in a separate trial on Friday to working as
a computer programmer on Jetflicks.
Polo
said he reproduced tens of thousands of copyrighted television episodes and
movies without authorization and streamed and distributed the programs to
thousands of paid subscribers throughout the U.S., prosecutors said.
Polo
would send out emails to iStreamItAll subscribers urging them to cancel
subscriptions to licensed sites, highlighting the catalog of 118,479 TV
episodes and 10,980 movies, according to the Justice Department.
The
illegal website had more content than licensed streaming services Netflix,
Hulu, Vudu and Amazon Prime, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors
said Polo would use “sophisticated computer programming” to search global
pirate sites for new illegal content.
Polo and
Villarino both pleaded guilty to also working separately as computer
programmers at Jetflicks, another subscription-based illegal streaming site
based out of Las Vegas.
Polo’s
sentencing will be held on March 13, and Villarino’s will be held on March 20.
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