Mastermind Behind Kino.To Sentenced to Jail

Martin S., a 27-year-old man, the one considered to be the “main admin” of the defunct Kino.to movie streaming portal, was sentenced to 3 years in jail, the authorities confiscating his house, a car and bank accounts.

Many individuals were arrested, some of which were already imprisoned, for running the website that’s being suspected of serving over 1 million instances of copyrighted materials, informs TorrentFreak.

Even though the prosecution wanted Martin S. to serve 3 years and 4 months, probably they’re happy to see another major pirate behind bars. A few days ago, another suspect, aged 33 was sentenced to 2 and a half years in prison for his contribution.

A car mechanic by profession, the suspect managed to make around 400,000 EUR ($520,000) from advertising and illegally claimed payments. The court established that the profit the copyright infringer made for himself was somewhere around 230,000 EUR ($300,000).

The judge that prosecuted the case concluded that the main reason why the defendant operated the site was to make “easy money.”

The same man is considered to run a file-hosting site, representing a source for Kino.to, that stored more than 16,000 motion pictures.

In the upcoming period, more individuals suspected of being involved in Kino.to will be brought to courtrooms where their fate will be decided. In the case of Martin S. the judge’s decision is final and there won’t be an appeal.

A month ago, German authorities apprehended another suspect that was believed to be the operator of a number of movies streaming portals, including Kino.to.

As we’ve seen at the time, while it’s a good thing that authorities managed to capture and sentence some major league for-profit pirates, many others will follow in their footsteps, quickly setting up new websites that resemble very much the ones that were taken down.