The saga is over. The ringleader of the Jetflicks illegal paid streaming site, a massive service boasting tens of thousands of subscribers, has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
As well as four other accomplices, 42-year-old Kristopher Lee Dallmann of Las Vegas, Nevada, was already convicted in June 2024 of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.
Besides, Dallmann was also separately found guilty by a federal jury of money laundering, criminal copyright infringement by distribution, and criminal copyright infringement by public performance.
“Dallmann reaped millions of dollars in profit from the operation. The government conservatively estimated the value of the copyright infringement in the case at $37.5 million,” the Justice Department (DOJ) said in a press release.
“This included the approximate retail value of the defendants' reproduction of infringing works to create the Jetflicks inventory as well as the approximate retail value of the streams of pirated television episodes that the defendants provided to subscribers.”
According to the DOJ, the piracy ring used automated software and scripts to scan global websites for pirated content and to then make it available on servers in the US and Canada for paid subscribers to stream or download.
The defendants often delivered episodes to subscribers the day after the shows originally aired on television. The service was not only available to subscribers over the internet but specifically designed to work on many different types of devices, platforms, and software.
At one point, Jetflicks claimed to have 183,285 different television episodes – significantly more than Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, Amazon Prime, or any other licensed streaming service.
This was the largest internet piracy case – as measured by the estimated total infringement amount and total number of infringements – ever to go to trial as well as the first illegal streaming case ever to go to trial, said the DOJ.
At one point, Jetflicks claimed to have 183,285 different television episodes – significantly more than Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, Amazon Prime, or any other licensed streaming service.
“The defendants operated Jetflicks, an illegal paid streaming service that made available more television episodes than any licensed streaming service on the market,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the DOJ’s Criminal Division.
“This scheme generated millions of dollars in criminal profits, and hurt thousands of US companies and individuals who owned the copyrights to these shows but never received a penny in compensation from Jetflicks.
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