Ohio man is the first person to go to jail for pirating Android apps

By Williams Pelegrin Published November 6, 2014

ohio man android pirate jail snappzmarket — Image used with permission by copyright holder

It hasn’t been a fun week for those in the world of pirating thanks to the arrest of the third Pirate Bay co-founder. Well, now you can add a 28-year-old Ohio man who plead guilty to the charge of criminal copyright infringement, reports TorrentFreak.

The man in question, Scott Walton, confessed to having participated in SnappzMarket, an online marketplace that distributed more than one million pirated copies of copyrighted Android applications from May 2011 through August 2012. Walton’s arrest and subsequent charges were brought forth after 23-year-old Florida man Kody Jon Peterson also plead guilty for his role in the scheme.

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“The apps had a total retail value of over $1.7 million and were distributed through the SnappzMarket alternative online store without permission from the victim copyright owners, who would otherwise sell copies of the apps on legitimate online markets for a fee,” according to a Department of Justice press release.

The FBI was able to obtain a seizure order to bring down the website. It was the first time the Bureau received such an order against a website domain involving mobile app marketplaces.

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Williams Pelegrin

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…

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