An indictment was unsealed in the federal court in Brooklyn, charging Noor Nabi Chowdhury and his brother, Mohammad Mahmudur Rahman, with several offenses related to digital streaming piracy. The two men allegedly ran an online subscription-based service named 247TVStream, which provided unlicensed streams of copyrighted TV shows and live sports events. Chowdhury has been arrested, while his brother Rahman is still at large, as the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York reported.
Officials detailed that their operation, running since May 2017, allowed subscribers to illegally access content for a monthly fee as little as $10. The service, lacking proper licenses, is calculated to have caused over $100 million in economic harm to rightful copyright owners and established streaming platforms. Announced by Breon Peace, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and other law enforcement officials, the charges include conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, with website domain names linked to the service having now been seized by the government.
Amid the crackdown on 247TVStream, visitors to the service's websites are being greeted by messages indicating a seizure by federal authorities. An international cooperative effort also saw seizures of a portion of the service’s infrastructure servers in the Netherlands and the U.K., demonstrating a concerted commitment to enforce criminal copyright laws across borders, as evidenced by the heavy involvement of international law enforcement agencies.
The indictment carries the weight of substantial prison terms if convictions are actualized. The defendants could be looking at maximum penalties that culminate in several decades behind bars: "As alleged, the defendants operated a bootleg online streaming service that distributed copyrighted television programs that they stole for their personal enrichment," United States Attorney Peace said in a statement obtained by the U.S. Attorney's Office. The investigation into the case continues under the aegis of the HSI New York Field Office, with support from their Buffalo Field Office and international attaché offices.
With the case being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Rebecca Schuman and Trial Attorneys Vasantha Rao and Jeff Pearlman of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, the accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The indictment illustrates the government's intensified scrutiny over digital piracy and its significant implications for both creators and consumers in the constantly evolving digital world.
