American Barry Gitarts was sentenced to five years in prison and a $ 250,000 fine after being accused of pirating and selling copyrighted content, Vnunet said.
The 25-year-old was responsible for the server of the Apocalipse Production Crew (APC) group, a platform from which it was possible to access music, films, video games and software which in some situations were not yet available on the market.
In addition to Barry Gitarts, another 15 members of the group were detained although the young man was the only one to be prosecuted.
The sentence was unanimously approved by a group of popular jurors and now the final word will be decreed by a judge on 8 August this year.
The Recording Industry Association of America, RIAA, which has long been following in the footsteps of APC members, congratulated the authorities on ending this process.
Brad Bucles, vice president of the RIAA’s anti-piracy division, said that although these groups «are the tip of the piracy pyramid» they must suffer the consequences for the crimes they commit.
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