Piracy Operator Goes from Jail to Getting Hired by a Tech Unicorn in a Month

https://torrentfreak.com/sports-piracy-operator-goes-from-jail-to-getting-hired-by-a-tech-unicorn-in-a-month/

by askl • 10 months ago

91 48 10 months ago

btown• 10 months ago

If you're operating e-sports teams and want to build/market a new video livestreaming platform for fans, outside of the walled gardens of YouTube and Twitch and in a cost-efficient manner... bringing on an outspoken and talented entrepreneur who built that exact operation makes all the sense in the world!

And from https://9z.gg/equipos I see that one of their teams focuses on a racing simulator... so it seems the subject of this article is one of the few people in history to successfully reach the endgame of that legendary PSA that admonished viewers "You Wouldn't Download A Car." :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmZm8vNHBSU

giancarlostoro5• 10 months ago

That aged poorly, I absolutely would download a car.

dghlsakjg• 10 months ago

That ad was always recognized as stupid, that’s why it’s a meme.

gus_massa• 10 months ago

Obligatory link to "You wouldn't steal a font" https://fedi.rib.gay/notes/a6xqityngfubsz0f (HN discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43775926 | 1401 points | April 2025 | 407 comments)

hnlmorg• 10 months ago

The also didn't have the rights to the techno track playing in the background.

gchamonlive3• 10 months ago

Meanwhile Milei got involved in a major crypto scandal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/$Libra_cryptocurrency_scanda... and nothing really happened to him.

I understand those are different circumstances, Milei having no such tech skills, I just find it ironic.

thrance2• 10 months ago

Trump and his wife both did the same thing on day one of his second term. No one cares. At least Milei faced some public outrage, but Trump has a cult that will defend him in literally any circumstances.

EDIT: I'm getting downvoted, as expected. Insane that just calling out the president on his crypto-scamming antics can get you anger from the right. I am yet to hear of a single republican even just acknowledging that Trump did something bad.

maerF0x02• 10 months ago

It's important for the left to consider that many, many of the right did not want trump, they just felt he was better than what the Democrats offered. Let's not debate who is or isnt better but appreciate the fact that when those right wing voters had a choice they preferred this clown over that clown.

giancarlostoro5• 10 months ago

If he writes good code I dont care what his personal life before working for me entails, long as he isnt doing illegal stuff on company resources.

ramon156• 10 months ago

define "doing illegal stuff". Piracy is such a weird grey area, especially for companies

bilekas• 10 months ago

Piracy is such a weird grey area, especially for companies

I think most people will agree, torrenting/pirating on company resources is a dumb idea. You probably deserve to be fired for it, grey area or not. Unless you have Facebook's lawyers though, then it seems to be okay.

hollywood_court• 10 months ago

I feel like that's true for most 'stuff', but there are a few exceptions where I will refuse to hire an individual based on things they've done with their personal lives.

constantcrying5• 10 months ago

long as he isnt doing illegal stuff on company resources.

Previous criminality is one of the most reliable indicators of future criminality.

Of course this depends on the crime, but it is absurd to believe that someones past crimes do not reflect on their likelihood to commit crimes again.

SketchySeaBeast• 10 months ago

I wonder if there's more nuance there if we break down types of crime and then factor in economic and social conditions. If the only way I can see to get ahead is selling drugs and I end up in prison for it, when I come out now branded as felon do I have more options?

mothballed2• 10 months ago

I would be shocked if a history of purely committing mala prohibita crimes had much correlation with committing mala in se crimes.

someothherguyy3• 10 months ago

Previous criminality is one of the most reliable indicators of future criminality.

That blanket statement could use some nuance.

Supposedly, a brain is developing until around the mid-20s. That seems to line up with federal recidivism data [1].

1. https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-pu...

ActorNightly2• 10 months ago

That applies to crimes dealing with theft or assault. I.e when you are willing to break basic rules of society, that indicates

On the flip side if you run something like a drug trafficking business, you can probably run a generic shipping business if you make the same risk adjusted money without reverting to do doing anything illegal.

In the same way, if you run a piracy website, you most likely can just get paid big bucks at a tech company to do very easy work because you are likely smarter than most people there, and cruise control without worrying about doing anything illegal.

brk• 10 months ago

Sure, in theory. But then he is working on some important feature, and the code is on his laptop, which gets confiscated during a raid and now your access to the person and their in-process work is gone. Yeah, I know, code check-ins, documentation, blah blah blah. Totally the strong suit of the typical uber-hacker type /s.

The work/life boundaries are heavily blurred these days in even the best cases. Something like this, their personal life as a real potential to impact your business/product/brand.

gchamonlive3• 10 months ago

I'd start drawing a line on fascist ideologies. We don't need fascists no matter how brilliant and skilled. We can do without just fine.

foxyv2• 10 months ago

The problem is, when he does illegal stuff using your corporate resources, like running an illegal crypto scam it's a whole heckuva lot harder to say "Oh, we didn't know he would do that!" in court.

stronglikedan2• 10 months ago

it's a whole heckuva lot harder to say "Oh, we didn't know he would do that!" in court.

No it's not. If he did his time, he must be given the benefit of the doubt since he should be "reformed" by now.

stronglikedan2• 10 months ago

There's always someone just as qualified that doesn't have a record, so you'd in fact be hiring the lesser of the two candidates, and that's not a smart business decision.

vlan0• 10 months ago

"tech unicorn" why use those words?

urmom1572• 10 months ago

argies are retarded

tecleandor• 10 months ago

BTW, "LaLiga" Spanish operator mentioned in the article as the one promoting the arrest of this guy in Argentina is the same mentioned this past weeks as getting Spanish ISPs to block wide ranges of IP addresses (specially Cloudflare) each time there's a football match on TV:

  - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45358433
  - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45195520
  - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45323856

urmom1572• 10 months ago

from jail to getting hired by a slop factory meat grinder that pays like shit.

his punishment continues

winterrx• 10 months ago

The image of the person is hosted under their website as `/images/goat.jpg.webp`, interesting. Goat.

Piracy Operator Goes from Jail to Getting Hired by a Tech Unicorn in a Month

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