While some impatient fans might appreciate artists’ music getting leaked early, most artists themselves are not happy when they don’t have control over when and how their new music is released. 23-year-old Adrian Kwiatkowski learned the repercussions of accessing musicians’ work before it’s meant to be seen.
Kwiatkoski is a hacker who stole unreleased music from massive stars like Frank Ocean, Lil Uzi Vert, Post Malone, and Kanye West. In a UK court, he confessed to breaking into the artists’ cloud-based accounts and selling the work he found. As a result, Kwiatkoski will be spending 18 months in prison.
“Kwiatkowski had complete disregard for the musicians’ creativity and hard work producing original songs and the subsequent loss of earnings,” said the Crown Prosecution Service’s Joanne Jakymec. “He selfishly stole their music to make money for himself.”
And he made quite a bit of money. According to authorities, Kwiatkowski profited about $147,000 in cryptocurrency he collected from buyers.
The sentencing of the hacker has been a long time coming. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office began to look into Kwiatkowski’s theft after multiple music management firms reported that some of their clients’ music had been stolen. At the time, the hacker was calling himself “Spirdark” and selling his finds on the dark web.
The hunt for Kwiatkowski was an international affair. The DA’s office worked with the London Police Department and located the hacker through his crypto account and IP address. Apparently, they found more than 500 audio files on his computer.
Kwiatkowski was apprehended in September of 2019, and was hit with 19 charges related to the theft.
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