Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Operator of Second-Largest Music Piracy Cyberlocker in United States Sentenced to 36 Months in Prison for Criminal Copyright Infringement



First Criminal Copyright Infringement Sentence Imposed for a Cyberlocker Operator

The operator of the RockDizMusic.com music piracy website and cyberlocker was sentenced today to serve 36 months in prison, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente of the Eastern District of Virginia and Special Agent in Charge Clark E. Settles of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Washington, D.C.

Rocky P. Ouprasith, 23, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith of the Eastern District of Virginia.  In addition to his prison term, Ouprasith was sentenced to serve two years of supervised release and was ordered to forfeit $50,851.05 and pay $48,288.62 in restitution.  On Aug. 21, 2015, Ouprasith pleaded guilty to one count of criminal copyright infringement.

According to admissions made in connection with his guilty plea, between May 2011 and October 2014, Ouprasith operated RockDizMusic.com, a website originally hosted on servers in France and later in Canada, from which Internet users could find and download infringing digital copies of popular, copyrighted songs and albums.  Ouprasith admitted that he obtained digital copies of copyrighted songs and albums – including “pre-release” songs that were not yet commercially available to consumers – from online sources and encouraged and solicited others, referred to as “affiliates,” to upload digital copies of copyrighted songs and albums to websites, including RockDizFile.com, that were hosted on servers in Russia, France and the Netherlands, and that hosted hyperlinks to content being offered for download on RockDizMusic.com.  Ouprasith further admitted that to encourage such activity, he agreed to pay the affiliates based on the number of downloads from his website.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America, in 2013, RockDizFile.com was the second-largest online file-sharing website specializing in the reproduction and distribution of infringing copies of copyrighted music in the United States.  Ouprasith admitted that in 2013 and 2014, he either ignored or pretended to take remedial action in response to complaints from copyright holders and their representatives that the website contained links to infringing copies protected songs and albums.

In October 2014, federal law enforcement authorities shut down RockDizMusic.com and RockDizFile.com, and law enforcement authorities in the Netherlands and France seized file-hosting servers utilized by Ouprasith.

According to court documents, the market value of Ouprasith’s illegally-pirated material was more than $6 million.

This case is being investigated by HSI.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Deputy Chief for Litigation John H. Zacharia of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Stoker of the Eastern District of Virginia.  The CCIPS Cyber Crime Lab and the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs, as well as Dutch, French and Canadian law enforcement officials have provided significant assistance.

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