FBI announces two computer programmers plead guilty on operating illegal movie and TV show streaming service in US

A resident of Las Vegas, Nevada, pleaded guilty this week to multiple criminal copyright and money laundering charges related to his running of iStreamItAll, one of the biggest illegal television show and movie streaming services in the United States, and working as a computer programmer with co-defendants to help build Jetflicks, a similarly large illegal television show streaming service, the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the announcement this week.  

Today, a second defendant, who also resides in Las Vegas, pleaded guilty in the same court to a criminal copyright charge for his work as a computer programmer for Jetflicks.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger of the Eastern District of Virginia and Assistant Director in Charge Timothy R. Slater of the FBI’s Washington Field Office announced.

Darryl Julius Polo, aka djppimp, 36, pleaded guilty yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, one count of criminal copyright infringement by distributing a copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution, one count of copyright infringement by reproduction or distribution, one count of copyright infringement by public performance and one count of money laundering.  

In a separate proceeding, co-defendant Luis Angel Villarino, 40, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.  Sentencing for both defendants will be before U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia, with Polo’s on Mar. 13, 2020, and Villarino’s on Mar. 20, 2020.

According to Polo’s plea agreement, Polo ran a site called iStreamItAll (ISIA), an online, subscription-based service headquartered in Las Vegas that permitted users to stream and download copyrighted television programs and movies without the permission of the relevant copyright owners.  

Polo admitted that he reproduced tens of thousands of copyrighted television episodes and movies without authorization, and streamed and distributed the infringing programs to thousands of paid subscribers located throughout the U.S.  Specifically, Polo admitted that ISIA offered more than 118,479 different television episodes and 10,980 individual movies.  

In fact, according to the plea agreement, ISIA had more content than Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and Amazon Prime, and Polo sent out emails to potential subscribers highlighting ISIA’s huge catalog of works and urging them to cancel those licensed services and subscribe to ISIA instead. 

According to Polo’s plea agreement, Polo obtained infringing television programs and movies from pirate sites around the world—including some of the globe’s biggest torrent and Usenet NZB sites specializing in infringing content—using various automated computer scripts that ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  

Specifically, Polo used sophisticated computer programming to scour global pirate sites for new illegal content; to download, process, and store these works; and then make the shows and movies available on servers in Canada to ISIA subscribers for streaming and downloading.  Polo also admitted to running several other piracy services—including a Usenet NZB indexing site called SmackDownOnYou—and earning over $1 million from his piracy operations. 

In addition, in Polo’s and Villarino’s plea agreements, they admitted that they separately worked as computer programmers at Jetflicks, another online, subscription-based service headquartered in Las Vegas that permitted users to stream and, at times, download copyrighted television programs without the permission of the relevant copyright owners.  

According to both plea agreements, Polo, Villarino and their co-conspirators at Jetflicks reproduced tens of thousands of copyrighted television episodes without authorization, and streamed and distributed the infringing programs to tens of thousands of paid subscribers located throughout the U.S.

Both Polo and Villarino also admitted that at Jetflicks they and their co-conspirators used automated software programs and other tools to locate, download, process and store illegal content, and then quickly make those television programs available on servers in the U.S. and Canada to Jetflicks subscribers for streaming and/or downloading.

In addition, as set forth in Polo’s and Villarino’s plea agreements, both Jetflicks and ISIA were not only available to subscribers over the internet but were specifically designed to work on many different types of devices, platforms and software including myriad varieties of computer operating systems, smartphones, tablets, smart televisions, video game consoles, digital media players, set-top boxes and web browsers. 

The other defendants in the case are scheduled to go to trial starting on Feb. 3, 2020.

The FBI’s Washington Field Office conducted the investigation. Senior Counsel Matthew A. Lamberti of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander P. Berrang of the Eastern District of Virginia and are prosecuting the case.  The CCIPS Cybercrime Lab provided significant assistance.

IDC finds that the refresh cycle of Surface and iPad will keep tablets market alive in the EMEA region

The EMEA tablet market reached 10.9 million units in the third quarter of the year, a drop of 8.2 percent on the same quarter last year, according to data from IDC. The contraction in consumer demand continues to be the main inhibitor of tablet adoption. 

As consumers lack compelling reasons to refresh their devices, life cycles continuously increase, leading to a market slowdown. However, the deployment of tablets in the commercial segments remains healthy, with a 4.2 percent year-on-year increase, due to the larger number of usage scenarios generated by digital transformation.

"In a quarter usually marked by seasonality, where there is a balance between the top two companies, Apple maintained and consolidated its market leadership," said Helena Ferreira, research analyst, IDC Western Europe Personal Computing Devices. "The growing market saturation is driving consolidation, as the top five companies become increasingly dominant, and in developed economies, like in Western Europe, the top five represented more than three-quarters of the market."   

The overall tablet market in Western Europe declined 6.0 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of this year, while and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (CEMA) declined 12.0 percent year-on-year.

"Slate tablet shipments are continuing to drag down overall tablet results in both CEE and MEA, mostly due to the consumer consumption slowdown and significant drops in below-10in. tablets, due to stiff competition from large-screen smartphones," said Nikolina Jurisic, program manager, IDC CEMA.

Apple retained the market leadership in EMEA, ahead of its product refresh cycle. Samsung posted a double-digit decline, as the main focus is on pushing its prosumer S series and driving more profitability. Lenovo regained third position, filling the gap left by Huawei's decline. 

Huawei dropped to fourth and continues to suffer from the impact of the ban on consumer confidence. Amazon remained in the top 5 and continues to dominate the ultra-low-end price ranges, particularly during promotional periods such as Prime Day in the third quarter.

The EMEA tablet market is forecast to decline by 10.2 percent year-on-year in both the fourth quarter and for the whole year 2019. The dynamics affecting the market, particularly in the consumer segment, are expected to persist both in the consumer and in the commercial segments in the coming quarters.

"Despite the decline in total units shipped, the tier A vendors will sustain market value, particularly through the most recent iterations of iPad and Surface," said Daniel Goncalves, senior research analyst, IDC Western Europe Personal Computing Devices. "The new iPad with a first party keyboard and a new operating system designed to enhance productivity features in a tablet environment is expected to generate interest among prosumers and to continue boosting renewals of old tablets. On the other hand, the adoption of Surface Pro as a notebook replacement is expected to continue to thrive and to increasingly drive horizontal deployments in enterprise." 

The commercial market in EMEA is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 4.6 percent between 2019 and 2023.

"In the long run, the commercial segment is expected to grow due to the transition to mobility and growing user case scenarios for deploying tablets into businesses," said Jurisic.

IDC shows that global tablet shipments return to growth in the third quarter, pushed by new product launches

Research firm IDC has reported that the global tablet market returned to growth in the third quarter of 2019 with 37.6 million units shipped globally for a year-over-year increase of 1.9 percent, according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker. 

Apple maintained its lead and grew 21.8 percent over last year. The introduction of a new iPad late in the quarter helped the company gain share, growing from 26.3 percent in the third quarter of 2018 to 31.4 percent for this year’s third quarter. 

By including the Smart Connecter on its latest device, all of Apple's iPads except the Mini now offer a detachable keyboard option. This, combined with the iPad OS, makes Apple the largest player in the detachable space and a greater threat to the traditional PC market. 

Amazon.com managed to grab the second spot (usually held by Samsung) during the quarter, growing shipments 25.6 percent year over year. The introduction of the new Fire 7 last quarter combined with the company's annual Prime Day Sale helped drive shipments. 

With the latest refresh of the Fire 10 and the upcoming holiday season, Amazon continues to position itself as one of the most popular tablet brands. 

Samsung slipped into third place, shipping 4.6 million units in the quarter. The Tab A series continues to be incredibly popular accounting for more than half of Samsung's shipments, while the Tab S series has helped raise the company's profile as a premium Android tablet vendor. 

Huawei shipped 3.6 million units in the third quarter of this year for a year-over-year decline of 4.4 percent. The company has faced steady pressure from the United States, and this has led to a bit of retrenchment as the majority of the company's shipments were in China. 

Lenovo rounded out the top 5, growing its share slightly from 6.3 percent in the third quarter of 2018 to 6.7 percent in the current quarter. The company's performance in Asia/Pacific, including Japan, along with Europe, Middle East & Africa, continued to be a driver.