If a streaming service seems too good to be true, it probably is, and in Jetflicks’ case, it was too good to be legal.
A federal jury in Las Vegas convicted five men of participating in a complex scheme to scrape popular TV shows and award-winning movies from pirate sites and package them into a streaming service called Jetflicks, the Department of Justice said in a statement on Thursday. According to the indictment, Jetflicks operated as a subscription-based streamer, allowing users to watch and download copyrighted TV shows and movies without the permission of the copyright holders.
“The defendants operated Jetflix, an illegal streaming service that they used to distribute hundreds of thousands of episodes of stolen television shows,” Principal Deputy Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, Director of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a statement. According to the Department of Justice, the group stole thousands of episodes of copyrighted television shows, generating a volume of content “larger than the catalogs of Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and Amazon Prime combined.”
Authorities say that for a $10 monthly subscription fee, users can watch shows across multiple devices and platforms within days of new episodes being posted on legal services and channels.
“The defendants operated a platform that automated the theft of television programming and distributed this stolen content to subscribers,” David Sandberg, Deputy Director of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, said in a statement.
The five were Christopher Dallman, Douglas Cawthon, Felipe Garcia, Jared Haurecki and Peter Huber. According to the indictment, the executives obtained content from pirate sites such as SickRage (aka SickChill), Sick Beard, SABnzbd and TheTVDB and offered it to subscribers in one place. At one time, Jetflicks claimed to have more than 37,000 paying users and 183,200 episodes of TV programming. Authorities estimate financial damages to program owners to be in the millions of dollars.
The indictment said Jetflix, like any legitimate business, eventually ran into problems, such as members sharing login names and passwords. Authorities also said the group tried to pass off the site as an entertainment service for airline passengers after receiving a flurry of requests to remove unauthorized content.
“At a time when complaints from copyright holders and issues with payment providers threatened to collapse their illegal, multi-million dollar operation, defendants attempted to pass off Jetflix as an aviation entertainment company,” Sandberg said.
And, as in the legitimate business world, about seven years after Jetflix was founded, one of the group’s members left to start a new, competing venture, the people said.
According to the indictment, Darryl Julius Polo (aka djppimp) launched iStreamItAll, which allowed users to stream and download TV shows and movies. iStreamItAll (ISIA) subscription plans were $19.99 per month, with quarterly, semi-annual, and annual options. Authorities said that, like Jetflicks, ISIA did not have permission to offer its content. Polo, a computer programmer, pleaded guilty in 2019 to one count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and one count of copyright infringement. Polo was sentenced to four years in prison and 75 years in prison and ordered to pay $1 million.
Authorities allege Jetflix also had its own organizational structure: Dallman ran operations, while Coulson and Jauregui helped run the company, including making strategic decisions, hiring and dealing with vendors and payment processors. Dallman, Polo and Huber were responsible for programming and coding, as well as writing and modifying computer scripts for the website and mobile apps. The group also handled web design, customer interface and technical support, authorities said.
In 2016, an undercover detective streamed an episode of the sci-fi show. Office AutomationThe video aired on Netflix, according to the indictment, and agents also downloaded two episodes of the dystopian drama. 12 MonkeysThe authorities wrote that this led to the episode being distributed without the permission of the copyright holder.
Coulson, Garcia, Haurecki and Huber each face a maximum sentence of five years in prison, while Dallman faces a maximum sentence of 48 years in prison, according to the Department of Justice. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
