Federal jury convicts 5 of running illegal streaming services

Las Vegas, NV (Dept. of Justice) - A federal jury in Las Vegas convicted five men for their roles in running one of the largest unauthorized streaming services in the United States, which generated millions of dollars in subscription revenue while causing substantial harm to television program copyright owners.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, beginning as early as 2007, Kristopher Dallmann, Douglas Courson, Felipe Garcia, Jared Jaurequi, and Peter Huber operated an online, subscription-based streaming service known as Jetflicks.

The Jetflicks group used sophisticated computer scripts and software to scour pirate websites for illegal copies of television episodes, which they then downloaded and hosted on Jetflicks servers. The group reproduced hundreds of thousands of copyrighted television episodes without authorization, amassing a catalog larger than the combined catalogues of Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and Amazon Prime.

Dallmann and his co-conspirators made millions of dollars streaming and distributing this catalogue of stolen content to tens of thousands of paid subscribers.

The jury convicted the quitet of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, and convicted Dallmann of two counts of money laundering by concealment and three counts of misdemeanor criminal copyright infringement.

Courson, Garcia, Jaurequi, and Huber each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison, and Dallmann faces a maximum penalty of 48 years in prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set.