Android app pirates face prosecution

US attorney Sally Quillian Yates says that each one of the people included in the indictments will be prosecuted under US law for piracy and theft of intellectual property. Image: Department of Justice

According to the US Department of Justice, Criminal charges were laid against leading members of "piracy groups" SnappzMarket, Appbucket, and Applanet.

"Copyright infringement discourages smart people from doing innovative things," US attorney Sally Quillian Yates of the Northern District of Georgia said in a release.

"This problem is especially acute when it comes to rapidly developing technologies, like apps for smart phones, and these defendants are now being held accountable for the intellectual property they stole."

According to the indictments, groups rented computer servers to host websites such as snappzmarket.com, appbucket.net applanet.net that stored and distributed pirated copies of Android applications.The websites are no longer functioning.

Domains seized

Online domains for those websites were seized by authorities in August 2012 in the first crackdown of its kind on mobile device app marketplaces, prosecutors said.

During the years prior to the Web addresses being seized, millions of dollars' worth of pirated mini-programs for Android-powered mobile devices were distributed by the websites, in what was portrayed as criminal copyright infringement.

"The federal indictments are the direct result of an extensive and thorough federal investigation into three groups of individuals aggressively engaged in and profiting from the theft of intellectual property," special agent in charge J. Britt Johnson of the FBI Atlanta field office.

"The FBI will continue to provide significant investigative resources toward such groups engaged in such wholesale pirating or copyright violations as seen here," he said.

Each person named in the indictments lives in the United States.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge