Fifth Defendant Pleads Guilty In P2P Sting
The Justice Department announced late Monday that a fifth defendant pleaded guilty in connection with the first criminal enforcement action going after unauthorized file-sharers on a peer-to-peer network using BitTorrent technology.
Sam Kuonen, 24, of Columbus, Ga., pleaded guilty to a two-count felony charging him with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and criminal copyright infringement in violation of the Family Entertainment Copyright Act. He faces up to five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised release, the agency said.
Four others have been convicted as part of Operation D-Elite, a federal crackdown focusing on leading members of the P2P network known as Elite Torrents. At its prime, the network attracted more than 133,000 members and facilitated the illegal distribution of more than 17,800 movie, software, music and game titles, Justice said.
Federal agents shut down the Elite Torrents network by taking control of its main server in May 2005. Authorities replaced the Web page with a notice that read: "This Site Has Been Permanently Shut Down by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)." Within a week, the message was viewed over half a million times, officials said.
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