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Isle Of Wight Man Arrested For Alleged Involvement In International Piracy Ring

An Isle of Wight man has been detained in Cyprus for his alleged involvement in an international piracy ring.

Lawyers in America are attempting to extradite 50-year-old George Bridi to stand trial in the US.

According to the United States Attorney's Office of Southern District Of New York, Mr Bridi "fraudulently obtained DVDs and Blu-Ray discs from wholesale distributors up to several weeks prior to their retail release date."

He is one of three people accused of being members of the 'Sparks Group', which has since been taken down.

It is alleged the organisation spread movies and television shows online before they were released to the public. 

Mr Bridi was detained in Cyprus on Sunday on an INTERPOL Red Notice based on the US criminal charges.

Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said: 

“As alleged, the defendants were members of an international video piracy ring that was sophisticated and widespread. 

"The group allegedly circumvented copyright protections on nearly every movie released by major production studios, as well as television shows, and distributed them by way of a worldwide network of servers."

George Bridi is charged with copyright infringement conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to transport stolen property interstate.

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