May 27, 2008
By Sharon Gaudin

A Brooklyn, N.Y., man was convicted of copyright infringement late last week in the largest criminal music piracy case in the United States. Barry Gitarts, 25, was convicted by a jury in federal court in Alexandria, Va., for his role in the so-called Apocalypse Production Crew, an online piracy group that specialized in stealing and disseminating not-yet-released music.

Gitarts, faces a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. He was also ordered to make full restitution. He is slated to be sentenced on Aug. 8. Gitarts, who used the alias Dextro, was the 15th member of the group to be convicted on piracy charges. All were charged in early 2004 when law enforcement agents around the world acted on search warrants aimed at several online piracy groups.

The other 14 members of the Apocalypse Production Crew who were charged have pleaded guilty."Our hope is that it will deter people from pirating material on the Internet," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay V. Prabhu, who prosecuted the case. "The intellectual property industry has estimated that the money [lost] to piracy and is in the billions of dollars.

There are hundreds of groups like this, but these guys were a significant provider." Gitarts, according to court records, paid for and maintained the server that the piracy group used. The server was based at a Houston hosting provider but Gitarts controlled it from his home. APC, and other online piracy groups work by stealing music, movies, software and video games before they're released for sale.