Torrent Site Admin Hit with 3-Year Sentence, Fine

WASHINGTON — A high-ranking administrator for a Torrent website was sentenced to three years of supervised release and fined $20,000.

A jury found Daniel Dove, 26, guilty of conspiracy and felony copyright infringement on June 26. U.S. District Court Judge James P. Jones handed down Dove's sentence last week.

At trial, the government presented evidence that Dove was an administrator with EliteTorrents.org, a BitTorrent indexing site. The government argued that EliteTorrent used standard peer-to-peer Torrent-tracking technology to infringe on copyrighted material.

The government also argued that Dove's role as an EliteTorrent admin had him uploading actual pirated content to the site for others to download. The government demonstrated to jurors that Dove owned a super-high-fast server that he used to upload this content.

The case was a part of a larger government task force called D-Elite, which has targeted peer-to-peer sites for prosecution. Attorney Tyler G. Newby of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property led the prosecution.

Dove's role in actually uploading content put him in more precarious position than other peer-to-peer practitioners. When a U.S. District Court judge handed down a $111 million decision against TorrentSpy, the company's lawyer called it a "Hollywood publicity stunt" based on what he said was TorrentSpy's lack of assets and their guiltless role in merely helping to distribute torrent files.

TorrentSpy works like a search engine, except that it seeks out small text files, often called "torrent files," that users then load into locally hosted proprietary programs that use the files as guideposts to find and download actual media files.

But not everyone agrees that such action is harmless.

Attorney Rob Apgood agreed. Apgood, a member of the firm CarpeLaw, told XBIZ he applauded the decision.

"Copyright infringement is so rampant on the Internet, and it's severely damaging copyright holders," he said. "People who facilitate theft should be held just as accountable as the thieves themselves."

Related:  

Copyright © 2025 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More News

NextGen Payment Joins ASACP as Corporate Sponsor

NextGen Payment has signed on as the latest corporate sponsor for the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP).

Lauren Phillips, Derek Kage Cap AEBN's Top Stars for 3rd Quarter of 2025

AEBN has revealed its most popular performers in straight and gay theaters for the third quarter of 2025.

XBIZ 2026 Conference to Debut All-New Company Lounges, Community Track

The event website for XBIZ 2026 is now live, unveiling details for North America’s largest adult industry conference, including two all-new show features: Company Lounges and a Community Track.

Mymember.site Integrates VR Functionality

Mymember.site has added virtual reality playback capability to its website management platform.

Texas Patti to Launch Fetish Platform 'EmpireDom'

Performer and content creator Texas Patti is launching a new platform for doms and fetish creators, EmpireDom.com.

Ohio AG Threatens Action Against 'Major' Adult Sites Over AV Law

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced today that his office is sending "notice of violation" letters to 19 adult websites for failure to comply with the state's recently enacted age verification law.

Chaturbate Announces 2025 Music Contest Winners

Chaturbate has revealed the winners of its 2025 music competition.

2026 XBIZ Exec Awards Pre-Noms Open With Debut of New 'Impact' Honors

XBIZ is pleased to announce that the pre-nomination period for the 2026 XBIZ Exec Awards, the adult industry’s premier career honor, begins today and runs through Oct. 14.

MYM Rolls Out New Traffic Features for German Creators

German platform MYM has launched a new traffic system for its creators.

Ukrainian Content Creators on Hook for Nearly $10M in Back Taxes

Content creators in Ukraine owe the equivalent of $9.3 million in back taxes, according to the country's State Tax Service.

Show More