FBI shuts down 2 illegal streaming sites, one of which is bigger than Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu combined
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced on Friday that it has shut down two Las Vegas-based illegal streaming sites. One of the sites had more content available than Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Vudu.
Darryl Polo was arrested for pirating and distributing copyrighted content through his website iStreamItAll (ISIA). The website offered a total of 118,749 episodes of television shows and 10,980 different movies. Users paid a monthly subscription fee to access this content, which was obtained through automated computer software that scoured torrent sites, downloaded the media, and stored it on servers located in Canada.
In addition to ISIA, Polo worked on another illegal streaming site with an accomplice, Luis Villarino. The other site, called Jetflicks, is structured similarly to ISIA but at a smaller scope. Jetflicks used similar automated software to constantly find and download copyrighted content. Polo and Villarino worked as programmers for the pirate streaming site.
Polo and Villarino will be sentenced in March 2020.