Major Music Piracy Website Owner Receives Prison Sentence

The websites were shut down in 2014. Ouprasith pled guilty to a single count of criminal copyright infringement. His punishment included 36 months in prison, with two years of supervised release, as well as forfeiture of profits and monetary penalties that totaled $100,000. He was let off easy compared to the maximum available sentence of five years in prison, forfeiture of profits, and monetary penalties up to $250,000.

Ouprasith’s plea included an admission that he illegally downloaded digital copies of music that he knew was protected by copyrights. He also urged other individuals to do it too. Ouprasith filled foreign servers with the pirated music so other parties could download the songs from his websites. He also profited from selling online advertising and subscriptions for quicker download times. Finally, Ouprasith admitted that he ignored complaints or pretended to remove copyrighted content from the websites when he received a complaint from the owner of the music.

“This sentence should send a message that operating a flagrantly illegal business that steals from others by engaging in criminal activity online has real consequences,” the RIAA executive vice-president for anti-piracy said in an e-mailed statement.

The Washington Post states that Ouprasith’s criminal sentence is the first in our country against the operator of a website storing pirated work via the cloud. However, it is predicted that the U.S. government is just getting started in its enforcement efforts and many more cases will be filed in the future.

If you need assistance with obtaining a copyright or registering a trademark, contact the legal team at The Swenson Law Firm to schedule an initial consultation.

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