Joshua David Evans was known as the “Head God” of the uploaders, while Jeremy Lynn Andrew was “Ninja Head of Security,” perhaps suggesting they thought they were engaged in good, clean fun or, at worst, schoolboy pranks.
Now, Evans, 34, and Andrew, 33, may be bound for detention — not the after-school, classroom kind but grown-up style detention, as in five years each in federal prison, plus hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and restitution payments for copyright violations.
Evans, of North Bend, Wash., and Andrew, of Eugene, Ore., pleaded guilty on Tuesday in the Eastern District of Virginia for their roles in NinjaVideo.net, a website that let millions of users illegally download copies of copyright-protected movies and television programs in high-quality formats, the Department of Justice announced. (Some Internet servers used in the conspiracy were located in Virginia, the DOJ said.)
Evans and Andrew oversaw an operation that took in hundreds of thousands of dollars, investigators said. Two other defendants have already pleaded guilty. They, like Evans and Andrew, will be sentenced over the next few months. A warrant has also been issued for still another suspect, who lives in Greece, the DOJ said.
