Three men are facing federal charges of participating in an international piracy ring that distributed popular movies and television shows online before their release dates, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
The men, who have been charged with copyright infringement conspiracy, were accused of being members of the Sparks Group, a sophisticated piracy outfit spanning several continents.
One of the men, George Bridi, 50, of the United Kingdom, was arrested in Cyprus on Sunday. An American, Jonatan Correa, 36, was arrested in Olathe, Kan., on Tuesday. The authorities were still searching for the third man, Umar Ahmad, 39, of Norway.
“The group allegedly circumvented copyright protections on nearly every movie released by major production studios, as well as television shows, and distributed them by way of a worldwide network of servers,” Audrey Strauss, the acting United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.
In the statement on Wednesday, U.S. officials said they had worked with Europol and law agencies in 18 other countries to shut down servers that the piracy groups had used to share content. It added that the Sparks Group had cost film production studios tens of millions of dollars.
The copyright infringement charges, which carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison
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