Copyright Pirates Go to the Big House Unless They Spill the Tea 🍵🏴‍☠️

The Deets

Okay, so peep this: This Canadian father-son duo, Antonio and Marshall Macciacchera, were running this whole operation called Smoothstreams. Basically, it was like a Netflix but for pirated content – movies, TV shows, live sports, the whole shebang. But, like, totally illegal, no cap.

Major media companies like Bell, Rogers, Disney, and all those big players were not feeling it. They hit 'em with lawsuits, injunctions, the whole nine yards. They even got Anton Piller orders, which is basically a legal raid, and seized their servers and stuff. It was a whole mess.

But here's the plot twist: they're not actually in jail for copyright infringement. They're in the slammer for being sus and refusing to spill the tea to the court. Like, the court was asking for passwords, financial deets, and stuff, and they were all, "Nah, we good." So, they got hit with contempt of court.

Now, Marshall is looking at six months, followed by five years less a day, or until he decides to cooperate. His dad, Antonio, got four months, followed by the same five years less a day, or until he starts singing like a canary. They're basically being held until they cough up the info, which is kinda wild.

Smoothstreams was pulling in some serious bread, too. We're talking over $1.5 million a year, with like 2.5 million visits in 2021 alone. People were paying for subs to watch all this illegal content, which is why the media companies were so pressed about shutting them down.

A lawyer for the media companies was like, "Yo, these illegal streaming services are a critical threat to the creative industry. It's costing people jobs and causing mad financial damage." So, yeah, this case is a big deal. The court is sending a message that they're not playing games with copyright infringement.

So, moral of the story? Don't be a copyright pirate, and definitely don't disrespect the court, or you might end up in the big house. Keep it 100, fam.