First Strike Against Digital Pirate—Under New “Protecting Lawful Streaming Act”

On October 28, 2021, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York indicted a Minnesota man for violating the “Protecting Lawful Streaming Act”, signed into law in December 2020.

It appears this is the first time the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged anyone under this new law.

In January of this year, I published a blog post titled, U.S. Anti-Piracy Legislation Passed – Illegal Streaming Penalties Increased, where I wrote,

“This law’s aim is to target operators… ,”

Essentially the Minnesota man was charged with illegally streaming content (a.k.a. “illicit digital transmission”) from four major U.S. sports leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL, respectively.)

Here’s how the specific “illicit digital transmission” charge in part reads:

“…the defendant, willfully, and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain, offered and provided to the public a digital transmission service that was primarily designed and provided for the purpose of publicly performing works protected under Title 17… by means of a digital transmission without the authority of the copyright owner or the law… “

I also wrote in my January blog post:

“Notably, the additional section raises the willful streaming of copyrighted material for profit from a ‘misdemeanor” to a “felony” and up to 10 years imprisonment.”

That’s serious business.

A recent Torrent Freak article titled, “Feds Indict ‘Pirate’ Sports Streams Operator Who Settled with Hollywood” does a terrific job of putting the case into context.

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