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Founder of illegal movie streaming site sentenced to 4.5 years in jail, $4.7 million fine

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 8:27PM EST
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The founder of one of Europe’s leading illegal movie-streaming portals has been sentenced to 4.5 years in jail, Deutsche Welle reports. 39-year-old Kino.to founder “Dirk B.” received a reduced sentence from a German judge this week after confessing to copyright infringement crimes related to his site, which allowed users to stream copyrighted movies illegally. Prosecutors were seeking an 11-year sentence, however the defendant’s confession and apology earned him less than half that time. Dirk B. will also have to pay a $4.7 million fine related to a sample 1.1 million instances of copyright infringement, though it is alleged that the man earned as much as $8 million from advertising on Kino.to.

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Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 15 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.