A Senegalese man was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered Wednesday to pay the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America $71,000 in restitution for his role in an Atlanta-based DVD and CD pirating operation that unlawfully sold millions of copies of copyrighted works without authorization from rights holders.
Mamadou Aliou Simakha had pleaded guilty in 2010 to one count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement but then fled the country. He was arrested last year in Morocco and extradited to the US in December, the authorities said. The FBI investigated the case with a variety of government agencies in addition to the RIAA and MPAA.
“Simakha admitted his part as a high-volume seller in a conspiracy to produce and traffic millions of pirated music CDs and DVDs which was a leading supplier for the southeastern US,” John Horn, the US attorney, said in a statement. “His decision to flee the country garnered him the statutory maximum sentence he deserves for his many years as a disc counterfeiter and international fugitive.”
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Source: Ars Technica – CD, DVD pirate sentenced to 5 years in prison