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Man pleads guilty to illegally uploading Top 40 hits
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 11 October 2016
A man from Liverpool has pleaded guilty to distributing Top 40 hits illegally online at Liverpool Crown Court.
As previously reported, Wayne Evans was arrested in September last year, accused of uploading a cappella tracks to his own ad-funded website, DeeJayPortal, as well as bundling each week’s Top 40 singles and uploading them to various torrent sites. The arrest was the result of a joint investigation between collecting society PRS For Music and their mates over at the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit.
Evans appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, pleading guilty to two charges of distributing an article infringing copyright and one of possessing or controlling an article for use in fraud.
PRS For Music’s Head of Litigation, Enforcement And Anti-Piracy, Simon Bourn commented: “Music piracy has a severe impact on the livelihoods of the entire songwriting community. PRS For Music is dedicated to both licensing and protecting our members’ rights, as well as enforcing against illegal services that are not willing to work with us towards a legitimate licensed model. We are therefore pleased to see the first conviction from our partnership with PIPCU, and we hope that this sends a message to all those involved in such criminal activity, that this is treated as a serious offence and consequences will follow”.
Sentencing is due to take place on 11 Nov.
