As part of Operation in Our Sites the U.S. Government were watching NinjaVideo and had approached Kim Dotcom’s Megaupload to retain evidence that Ninja staff had uploaded copyrighted videos to his now-defunct file-hosting service. Megaupload cooperated with the investigation, something which would later come back to bite them.

At the end of June 2010 the authorities carried out a raid on Ninja and eight other domains. Five people connected to NinjaVideo were arrested and in September 2011 they were indicted by a federal grand jury.

One of those indicted was site co-founder Hana Beshara. Known online by her pseudonym Phara and referred to by NinjaVideo members as their “Queen”, Beshara pleaded guilty and was subsequently sentenced to 22 months in prison.

This week TorrentFreak received a message from Candeelion, one of Phara’s closest friends. Phara is free once again and for those familiar with her previously outspoken and extroverted character, be assured that very little has changed. Being crammed into a prison with 250 other women “overflowing with estrogen” hasn’t calmed her in the slightest.

“WORD, I AM OUT OF PRISON! Oh man, I’m smiling like a fool here on this computer,” Phara begins. “You cannot possibly imagine how good it feels to be online again.”

Phara has also revealed a few details about her life in prison. Her new life was understandably not as stimulating as running NinjaVideo and her early days in confinement were marked by depression. However, Phara eventually got a job. For the first few months she peeled potatoes but at 12 cents an hour was never going to get rich.

Looking to do something more positive and avoid the manual labor, Phara successfully applied to do college classes. She appears to have found it amusing that the “small business” classes were a step down from running the Ninja operation she was used to.

A subsequent suggestion to other inmates that they begin studying current affairs apparently didn’t go down particularly well but she did end up leading a couple of jewelery-making classes. She also picked up a few skills herself, such as learning to knit and crochet. She can now also make cheesecake.

Phara is currently at a halfway house in Newark where she’ll remain until mid-June when she reports to house arrest.

“The house arrest will continue until the 22 months of the sentence are completed which I believe is in September. Then she must start her two years of supervised release,” Candee told TorrentFreak.

“This puts her fate into the hands of the Parole officer that she’s assigned to because if she
does not do the court mandated counseling and community service she could go back to prison for an undetermined amount of time.”

Phara must also get clearance to speak with the other defendants in the NinjaVideo case, although has made it clear that she’s only interested in speaking with two of them. She says that herself aside, Joshua Evans (known online as Wadswerth) and Jeremy Andrew (known online as htrdfrk) were the only defendants who refused to cooperate with the authorities.

As she gets her life in order, Phara also has to find a way to clear a huge debt. The Ninja founder owes the MPAA almost $210,000 in damages, but doesn’t want to pay them directly.

“Phara plans on petitioning the courts to allow her to pay back the film creators instead of the MPAA but is still waiting to speak with counsel on that move,” Candee explains.

But of course, Phara still needs to raise the money. Candee says that numerous options are being mulled, including appearing on the reality show The Amazing Race. MTV’s True Life have already approached Phara and she’s currently waiting to hear if they are interested in doing a “halfway house” edition of the show.

Finally, Phara is grateful to everyone who took the time to support her during her ordeal.

“Thank you to everyone that wrote and emailed and even put money on my books while I was locked up. You guys are wonderful,” she says. “I’m on home detention as of late June and out of Bureau of Prison custody in early September. Then two years of Supervised Release, which seems like some new-fangled way of saying Parole. Gotta stay out of trouble.”

Is this the last we’ll hear of Phara? Somehow we doubt it.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

As outlined in our discussions this week, Dotcom says that some of the allegations are misleading, particularly one claiming that Megaupload failed to delete infringing video files from its servers.

“A member of the Mega Conspiracy informed several of his co-conspirators [in 2010] that he located the named files using internal searches of the Mega Conspiracy’s systems,” the DoJ wrote.

“As of November, 18 2011, thirty-six or the thirty-nine infringing copies of the copyrighted motion pictures were still being stored on servers controlled by the Mega Conspiracy.”

Out of context the claim, that Megaupload ignores the DMCA, looks bad. However, when the full picture is put forward – that Megaupload found these files because a criminal search warrant from the FBI required them to do so – things start to look quite different.

And the plot thickens. Wired has discovered that the infringing files were put on Megaupload’s servers by individuals connected to the now-defunct streaming video site NinjaVideo.

The FBI were conducting a criminal investigation into NinjaVideo (which later resulted in several of its operators going to jail) and required Megaupload’s cooperation after serving the company with a search warrant in June 2010, just days before NinjaVideo was raided.

“Megaupload complied with the warrant and cooperated with the government’s request,” Megaupload lawyer Ira Rothken confirms.

According to Kim Dotcom, the FBI made it clear that the warrant should be kept quiet so as not to jeopardize the NinjaVideo inquiry.

“The agent was concerned that the target could be warned and that this needs to be handled confidentially,” Dotcom informs TorrentFreak.

The Megaupload founder says that this warning was taken seriously and that since the files were clearly evidence in the case none of them were interfered with.

“Obviously when the FBI contacted us they made this clear to us and therefore we did not touch the accounts or the files,” he says.

“We even emailed back to Carpathia [Megaupload's US server host] to ask the FBI (and the FBI had our emails before asking for the Mega domain seizure) if we should do anything about those files. We never got a response.”

But the criminal investigation against NinjaVideo and evidential issues in that respect were pushed aside when it came to building a case against Megaupload and seizing its domain.

“To use this against us and to tell a Judge that the Megaupload domain seizure is justified because we have not removed those 39 files is totally unethical and misleading,” Dotcom concludes.

The fact that the infringing files remained on Mega’s leased servers led the U.S. government to claim that Megaupload infringed copyright, despite the company having been served the original NinjaVideo search warrant as the site’s service provider, one that presumably should have received safe-harbor protection under the DMCA.

As previously reported, NinjaVideo founder Hana Beshara was eventually sentenced to 22 months in jail and ordered to repay almost $210,000.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

It was the first round in the ongoing “Operation in Our Sites” through which more than 300 domain names have been seized to date.

After the site’s domain was seized, five people connected to the movie streaming site were arrested last year. With the sentencing of Jeremy Andrew, all have now been sentenced.

Andrew was accused of taking part in the NinjaVideo conspiracy and pleaded guilty to a copyright infringement charge last October. Andrew, known online as “Htrdfrk,” started out as a regular visitor to the site but was later recruited as staff member.

His tasks were to secure the servers and moderate the forums, which the prosecutor described as important roles.

“Like the other charged defendants, Andrew filled an important role in the NinjaVideo conspiracy; Andrew served as “Ninja Head of Security”, which involved setting up, managing, and securing servers used by the conspiracy to store infringing content.”

“Andrew also served as one of the moderators of the NinjaVideo forum board; in that role, he provided technical support to website visitors, which included assisting visitors with accessing infringing content.”

The prosecutor admitted that, compared to the other defendants, Andrew played the smallest part in the conspiracy. Nevertheless, he asked the court to sentence Andrew to several months in prison. The defense on the other hand argued that a short probation term would be more appropriate, as Andrew has no criminal past and was not motivated by monetary rewards.

The court sided with the arguments provided by the defense and sentenced Jeremy Andrew to three years probation and 150 hours of community service. In addition, he has to pay the MPAA $5,250 in damages.

“The defendant did not seek out to join the conspiracy and was not motivated by any monetary rewards,” was one of the reasons Judge Anthony John Trenga gave for the lower sentence. “The defendant has accepted responsibility for his actions and is remorseful, which the Court believes is sincere,” he added.

The Judge further noted that letters from Andrew’s friends and family that were submitted to the court aided in the lower sentence. While the ruling will probably be welcomed as relatively good news by Andrew, satisfaction at the Department of Justice will be dampened. Unlike in previous cases, the DoJ opted not to issue a press release.

Now that the last of the five arrested NinjaVideo admins has been sentenced, we can give a complete overview of this landmark case.

The harshest sentence was handed to NinjaVideo founder Hana Beshara, who will spend 22 months in prison followed by 2 years of probation and a payment of $210,000 in damages. Fellow admin Matthew Smith received 14 months in prison, two years supervised release, and was ordered to pay back just over $172,000.

Joshua Evans received 6 months in prison, two years probation, and was ordered to pay the MPAA $26,660 restitution. Justin Dedemko was not listed as part of the NinjaVideo conspiracy but will spend 3 months in prison followed by 2 years of probation, and has to repay the MPAA $58,004.

One indicted NinjaVideo admin, Zoi Mertzanis from Greece, is still at large.

The case against NinjaVideo is crucial for several other previously arrested streaming site admins including UK student Richard O’Dwyer who will soon be extradited to the US. Brian McCarthy, the owner of ChannelSurfing.net and Yonjo Quiroa, who operated 16 streaming sites, are both yet to be sentenced.

Note: the original verdict came in last month but has not been reported in the media.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

NinjaVideo, at the time one of the Internet’s most popular video portals, was one of the first targets in the now-famous and ongoing Operation in Our Sites.

Five people connected to NinjaVideo were arrested and in September 2011 they were indicted by a federal grand jury. After pleading guilty on September 23rd, yesterday one of the site’s founders was sentenced in Alexandria, Va..

Matthew David Howard Smith, known online as Dead1ne, received 14 months in prison for his activities at Ninja. U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga also ordered Smith to serve two years of supervised release.

Of the total $505,000 said to have been collected by NinjaVideo in ad revenue and donations since its creation in February 2008, Smith is said to have received $172,387. The court ordered Smith to repay this amount and forfeit five financial accounts and previously-seized sundry computer equipment.

When compared to the punishment handed out to NinjaVideo co-founder Hana Beshara earlier this month, Smith was treated relatively leniently. Beshara, known online as ‘Phara’, was sentenced to 22 months in prison followed by 2 years of probation, 500 hours of community service and ordered to repay nearly $210,000.

In contrast to Beshara, 23-year-old Smith appears to have caused the authorities much less of a headache since his guilty plea. After her sentencing, the hugely outspoken 30-year-old Beshara posted comments to Facebook which suggested she had no regrets. The outburst incensed the authorities and she was rushed directly to a local prison to begin her sentence.

Three former operators of NinjaVideo are yet to be sentenced including 34-year-old Joshua David Evans (known online as Wadswerth), 33-year-old Jeremy Lynn Andrew (known online as htrdfrk), and 28-year-old Justin A. Dedemko (known online as Afr1ka). All face a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when they are sentenced in the coming months.

Zoi Mertzanis of Greece, known online as “Tik”, is accused of being one the site’s most active uploaders. A warrant is outstanding for his arrest.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Hana Beshara, known online as Phara, was the first of the site’s founders to be sentenced. She has to spend 22 months in prison followed by 2 years of probation and 500 hours of community service.

After her sentencing Beshara was released to allow her to spend a few weeks in the outside world until a bed became available at a local prison. This is common procedure if a person is unlikely to flee and doesn’t pose a danger to the safety of any other person or the community.

Initially the authorities didn’t protest this decision, but a few hours after the verdict they changed their position. As it turns out, the Attorney’s Office was keeping an eye on NinjaVideo’s Facebook page where Beshara was blowing off stream and interacting with other members of the Ninja community.

“I never snitched, I never left Ninjavideo, and I will always be proud of this incredible world we built, this community that touched millions. I hold my head high. Always. Ride or die, no? THIS SHIT IS NINJA,” was the first of more than two dozen updates to which the authorities took offense.

Aside from joking about her time in jail – picking up a degree, earning pennies making license plates – Beshara encouraged people to spread the word about her sentencing. The NinjaVideo founder further solicited for photo shoots in men’s magazines, and made plans to create a documentary.

The authorities were not amused by the outspoken convict, and immediately requested the court to detain her as soon as possible.

“Between Friday afternoon and this morning, Beshara posted more than 25 additional Facebook messages, which variously criticized the government, celebrated NinjaVideo.net’s copyright infringement, and sought to assemble a public relations team to engage media and documentary filmmakers to help her ‘fight back’ and ‘change [ ] history . . . again.’.”

“Beshara also posted several entries on what remains of the NinjaVideo.net forum boards, now hosted at www.ninjavideoforum.net, one of which belittled the sentence imposed by the Court and mocked the named victim of her crimes,” they write.

According to the authorities, the Facebook updates written by the NinjaVideo founder pose a danger to the community.

“Beshara’s post-sentencing actions demonstrate a clear lack of remorse over her illegal conduct and a disregard of the harm her actions have caused, and pose a danger to the community,” they write.

The question is what the authorities see as a threat. We assume that a comment like “IMA RUN MY FUCKIN CELL BLOCK. :),” isn’t taken too seriously. Even if it is, the comment wouldn’t be a threat to the community, and certainly not a reason to rush her to jail.

Another option is that the authorities simply don’t want Beshara to speak up in public and be critical or even sarcastic about her sentencing. Her motivation to get into the spotlight and have her say, may be one of the main reasons why the authorities wanted to speed up the detainment.

Despite opposition from Beshara’s lawyer, today the court sided with the prosecution and ruled that the NinjaVideo founder should be locked up effective immediately, taking away the few weeks she had left. Beshara was sent off to the Alexandria detention center where she will serve her sentence… and run a cell block.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Five people connected to NinjaVideo were arrested but it took until September 2011 for them to be indicted by a federal grand jury. One of those indicted was site co-founder Hana Beshara.

Later that month, Beshara – known online by her pseudonym Phara, and referred to by NinjaVideo members as their “Queen” – pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Beshara admitted her role in the founding of NinjaVideo during February 2008 and confessed to negotiating agreements with online advertisers. In total the site is said to have generated revenue and donations totaling around $500,000. Of this amount, Beshara admitted personally receiving around $200,000.

Today, 30-year-old Beshara was sentenced. For crimes of conspiracy and criminal copyright infringement, she was sentenced to 22 months in prison followed by 2 years probation and 500 hours of community service. She will have to repay the money she made from the site, a total of $209,826.95, and forfeit financial accounts and computer equipment.

“Hana’s lawyer was happy with the sentence,” a source close to NinjaVideo told TorrentFreak.

“Judge Trenga rarely gives the max penalty like some judges do. He was clearly unhappy with her being unremorseful but Hana does not separate her accomplishments in building the community with the crime,” the source added.

“Beshara had several character witness letters and made a statement to the court. The judge recognized that she is a capable, intelligent woman who created a high quality site.”

Last year, NinjaVideo co-founder and coder Matthew Smith (known online as Dead1ne) also pleaded guilty to conspiracy and criminal copyright infringement and was due to be sentenced December 2011. A delay means the 23-year old will be sentenced at a later date.

Joshua David Evans (known online as Wadswerth), 34, of North Bend, Wash. previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of criminal copyright infringement relating to the release of the movie Iron Man 2 before its commercial premiere.

Jeremy Lynn Andrew (known online as htrdfrk), a 33-year-old of Eugene, Ore. pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy.

Justin A. Dedemko (known online as Afr1ka), 28, of Brooklyn, N.Y was responsible for uploading content to NinjaVideo and marketing the site. He previously admitted receiving just over $58,000 from site revenue and will pay restitution in that amount.

All face a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when they are sentenced in the coming months. Beshara’s relatively lenient sentence (considering the maximum available) is an indication that their sentences are likely to be no more than 2 years.

A fifth defendant in the case, Zoi Mertzanis of Greece, known online as “Tik”, is accused of being one the site’s most active uploaders. A warrant is outstanding for his arrest.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

In the video below she talks about her plea and the future of the Ninja community, which she and the others intend to keep alive.

“This is serious, folks, I’m going to prison. I would never ask anyone to do the same, but I do ask to reach within yourselves and see what you can give back to Ninja.”

“I have about four months total until I’m locked up, and I don’t plan on sleeping much. We have a lot of work to do.”

Phara, as Beshara is better known online, will be sentenced in January and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each count

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

This ‘first round’ in the ongoing “Operation in Our Sites” resulted in five people connected to NinjaVideo being indicted by a federal grand jury this month. One of those indicted was site co-founder Hana Beshara.

Yesterday, Beshara – who is better known online by her pseudonym Phara, and affectionately referred to by NinjaVideo members as their “Queen” – pleaded guilty to her role in the founding of NinjaVideo during 2008.

The guilty plea of the Las Vegas-residing 29-year-old was made before U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga in the Eastern District of Virginia. For crimes of conspiracy and criminal copyright infringement, Beshara faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each count.

According to court documents, Beshara admitted negotiating agreements with online advertisers and together with the other defendants receiving revenue and donations totalling some $500,000. Of this amount, Beshara admitted personally receiving $200,000.

“As part of her plea agreement, Beshara agreed to forfeit assets seized by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in June 2010, including cash, an investment brokerage account, two bank accounts, a Paypal account and one Internet advertising account,” reads a statement from the Department of Justice.

Online, Beshara was a larger-than-life character who attracted both praise and criticism for her colorful management style as the most public-facing administrator of NinjaVideo.

But with this profile came enemies and at least one site dedicated to revealing her real identity. When photographs and details of her personal life appeared on the Internet in 2009, it was a question of when, not if, the site would eventually be brought down.

Beshara’s guilty plea follows that of co-defendant 23-year-old Matthew Smith, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and criminal copyright infringement last week.

Smith will be sentenced 16th December and the remaining three defendants will face a jury trial beginning 6th February 2012.

Beshara will be sentencd 6th January 2012, where she faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each count.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

It was the first round in the ongoing “Operation in Our Sites” through which more than 100 domain names have been seized to date.

In a few cases the authorities not only seized the domain names of the sites, but also launched full-fledged criminal investigations. One of these sites is NinjaVideo, and five people connected to the movie streaming site have now been indicted by a federal grand jury on suspicion of conspiracy and several copyright related offenses.

The 29-year old Hana Beshara and 23-year old Matthew Smith were charged as founders of the site. Zoi Mertzanis (36) and Joshua Evans (34) were identified as most active uploaders and Jeremy Andrew (33) as the person responsible for the site’s security.

Over the past several months the authorities negotiated with the NinjaVideo people, with the latter hoping to make a deal and settle the case, but these negotiations failed.

In response to the indictment Hana Beshara, better known as Phara on NinjaVideo, released an emotional video with her take on the events of the last months, and what still lies ahead. Although visibly shaken, Beshara says she stands behind her actions and doesn’t regret her involvement in the site.

“Everything we ever did was for the love of the game. It was so much fun. There’ll never be any regrets regarding NinjaVideo, ever.”

Next week the five defendants will appear before U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga in the Eastern District of Virginia, as the trial moves forward.

This isn’t the first criminal prosecution as a result of Operation in Our Sites. Earlier this year the authorities arrested the 32-year old Brian McCarthy from Texas for his involvement in Channelsurfing.net. As with NinjaVideo, Channelsurfing.net didn’t host any copyrighted material on its servers, instead it linked to third-party sites.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The authorities moved to seize several domains including TVShack.net, Movies-Links.TV, FilesPump.com, Now-Movies.com, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org and ZML.com. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) also seized assets from 15 bank, PayPal, investment and advertising accounts.

The operators of two other domains were also targeted – NinjaVideo.net and NinjaThis.net. According to authorities the site had been subjected to a months-long operation. This is something TorrentFreak can confirm. Following a tipoff from a very reliable source, we informed NinjaVideo months ago that they were being watched and their hardware was being interfered with. It’s almost certain that they were powerless to do anything about it.

Now, the charismatic and somewhat larger-than-life leader of NinjaVideo, a young woman by the name of Phara, has returned to the spotlight. Never one to understate an issue, Phara is known for her forceful leadership style and colorful, often dramatic writing on various site issues from the small, to the very large.

The seriousness of the situation she currently finds herself, however, is off the scale.

“We need you. Our lives, our very freedom depends on this. We can’t do it alone,” pleads Phara. “We have nothing. Nothing at all. They took… everything.”

“Precedents are being made upon our heads. Never before has a site like ours been targeted in this way. We ask you… if you are vested in this case, this landmark case on the future of Internet Sharing and Internet Rights, that you speak to your friends, your family, your co-workers, your bosses,” she continues.

The gravity of the situation is clear. There can be little doubt that the U.S. Government will seek to make a very large example of NinjaVideo’s operators – a likelihood which doesn’t escape Phara. To this end she is calling for heavyweight help.

“Perhaps you are affiliated with the ACLU, Google, Youtube, MegaUpload, Rapidshare, The Pirate Parties around the world. Perhaps you are financially comfortable and you feel passionately about the issue at hand. We need… NEED… legal sponsorship in addition to legal donation,” she pleads.

“Perhaps the future of your own site is at risk and it is this case that will put it in the crosshairs of the next raid. Perhaps it will be you who will see your home, dear lord, your home, ripped apart by THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY.”

NinjaVideo was a free resource and never took money from its users but due to the unbelievably difficult situation its operators now find themselves in, pleas are now being issued for people to donate to the site’s fighting fund.

“We are up against the Federal Government of the United States. They are petrifying. PETRIFYING,” concludes Phrara. “And they are backed by Hollywood. And they have chosen us to be an example. I think you understand how much money is on the other side.”

Lots. Lots and lots of money. There can be little doubt about that. Phara fears the worst.

“They want to cage us. They most likely will,” she warns ominously.

“Please don’t let them. All it takes is $1 from each of you.”

In return for large donations – four digits or more – Ninja are offering benefactors a prominent position “behind the scenes”, presumably connected with defense. What these positions entail exactly remains to be seen.

“Your prayers, your posts, your words, your art… your support in general is priceless. Unfortunately, in the world we live in, it will be your money that gives us a fighting chance. The former gives us the strength to close our eyes and take it one breath at a time, the latter gives us the opportunity to take that breath outside of a prison cell,” Phara concludes.

“We love you, NinjaVideo. We always will.”

Those who wish to contribute to the NinjaVideo fighting fund can do so via this page.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.