Android App Pirate Sentenced to 46 Months

4 years ago, the FBI carried out an operation targeting pirate Android app marketplaces. As part of the operation, pirate app stores’ domains were seized, and their operators were arrested. Now the first conviction arrived, with SnappzMarket's member receiving a 46-month prison sentence for copyright infringement.

86999dfe2b95a71258babccc54f7f830.th.jpg

Back in 2012, the FBI in cooperation with the police in France and the Netherlands took down three illegal Android stores: Appbucket, Applanet and SnappzMarket. This was the first domain seizure against unauthorized mobile app marketplaces, following similar actions against BitTorrent and streaming services. Later, several people connected to the Android app stores were arrested and indicted, but the first sentencing in these cases arrived only now.

Scott Walton, a PR manager for SnappzMarket, was found guilty by Georgia District Court Judge of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and sentenced to 46 months in prison. His primary task was to manage public relations, monitor the Facebook fan page for the store, provide responses to support inquiries, develop new ideas and help find solutions to technical problems. Besides, the court found that Walton searched for and downloaded copies of copyrighted apps, burned them to compact discs and mailed them to another defendant.

Although the sentencing itself didn’t come as a surprise, the industry watchers point out that it took a long time to be finalized. Walton had already pleaded guilty 2 years ago, when he admitted to being involved in the illegal copying and distribution of unauthorized Android apps with a retail value of $1.7 million.

Before sentencing, Walton’s attorney urged the court to minimize the sentence, but it is unclear whether his pleas helped: the 46-month sentence is not as long as the 5 years maximum, but it is still a very long time. Initially, the defendant was able to await his sentencing as a free man, but back in 2015 he was incarcerated after violating his pretrial release conditions. In other words, he has already served part of his sentence.

Walton’s two colleagues from SnappzMarket who were indicted are expected to be sentenced later in 2016, along with their co-conspirator.

Thanks to TorrentFreak for providing the source of the article.