September last year IMAGiNE stopped distributing new films via their private BitTorrent tracker UnleashTheNet. As IMAGiNE was one of the Internet’s leading BitTorrent release groups, their absence quickly led to rumors that the group had been busted by the feds. A few months later confirmation arrived when the group was indicted by the U.S. Government. In April, Jeramiah Perkins of Portsmouth, Va., Gregory Cherwonik of New York, Willie Lambert of Pennsylvania, and Sean Lovelady of California, were all arrested and charged with several counts of criminal copyright infringement. Earlier this month Lovelady and Lambert received 23 and 30 month prison sentences respectively, and yesterday 53-year old Cherwonik was jailed for 40 months by Virginia District Court Judge Arenda Allen. In addition, Cherwonik was ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution to the MPAA.

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IMAGiNE BitTorrent Piracy Group “Sysop” Jailed 40 months