Matthew Smith received a 14 month jail sentence today, and the United States government confiscated his computer equipment and five financial accounts, after Smith was convicted of violating property rights by operating Ninjavideo.net.
“Smith was one of the founders of the NinjaVideo.net website, which operated from February 2008 until it was shut down by law enforcement in June 2010,” the Department of Justice (DOJ) explained in an announcement of the sentencing. “NinjaVideo.net provided millions of website visitors with the ability to illegally download infringing copies of copyright-protected movies and television programs in high-quality formats.”
Smith was indicted on Septemper 9, 2011, and he pleaded guilty on September 23rd to “pleaded guilty on Sept. 23, 2011, to conspiracy and criminal copyright infringement.”
The sentencing comes the same week that the Department of Justice shut down another file-sharing website, Megaupload, which resulted in a retaliatory action by hackers who shut down the DOJ website. Those DOJ actions took place against the backdrop of a congressional fight over the Stop Online Piracy Act, which would expand the federal government’s authority to block websites.
