Justice Department Gets First Conviction for Mobile App Piracy

Two men have pled guilty to charges filed by the Justice Department.  Nicholas Anthony Narbone entered a guilty plea on Monday to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement.  Thomas Allen Dye, who was labeled as the “co-conspirator” pled guilty to the same charge earlier this month.

These men are responsible for the Android app repository “Appbucket”.  This was labeled as an “alternative online market”, which authorities say in an article by The Verge illegally distributed 1 million copies of copyright apps, valued at over $700,000.  Naturally, these were given away with no consent from the developers.

This is not the only Android repository to get nailed by the Justice Department – 22 year old Kody Peterson was the suspected proprietor of “SnappzMarket.com”.  Peterson is accused of even more value lost for developers with over 1 million illegal downloads, totaling a value of $1.7 million.  More details of this case have not been released, leaving one to believe that it is still ongoing.

With regards to Narbone and Dye, they are due to be sentenced on July 8^th and June 12^th respectively.  The two are facing up to 5 years in prison.