A hacker who stole unreleased Ed Sheeran songs has been jailed for 18 months (Picture: PA)
A hacker who stole unreleased songs from Ed Sheeran and sold them on the dark web has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Adrian Kwiatkowski, 23, illegally accessed the cloud-based accounts of dozens of top musicians, including Frank Ocean, Post Malone and Kanye West.
He would then steal unreleased material from these artists and trade their songs online in exchange for cryptocurrency.
City of London Police, who investigated the case, believe Kwiatkowski had made over £131,000 pounds from selling the illegally-obtained tunes.
‘Kwiatkowski had complete disregard for the musicians’ creativity and hard work producing original songs and the subsequent loss of earnings,’ said Joanne Jakymec of the Crown Prosecution Service.
She added: ’He selfishly stole their music to make money for himself.’
He was snared after representatives of Frank Ocean contacted police in 2019 after he and multiple other musicians claimed to have been hacked by someone using the pseudonym ‘Spirdark’.
After tracing Spirdark’s email and IP address back to a location in Ipswich, Suffolk, City of London Police picked up the investigation and arrested Kwiatkowaski in September that year.
Adrian Kwiatkowski, who used the alias Spirdark online, stole thousands of songs from top artists such as Ed Sheeran, Frank Ocean and Kanye West (Picture: PA)
Seven devices were seized from his home during a search, including a hard-drive containing 1,263 unreleased songs by 89 artists, and a laptop containing an additional 595 illegal audio files.
Two unreleased Ed Sheeran songs were found in the list, one of which is believed to be the song Butterfly.
Kwiatkowski later admitted to using the alias Spirdark and pleaded guilty to a variety of charges, including 14 copyright offences and three counts of computer misuse. He was sentenced Friday in Ipswich Crown Court.
Stuart Camp, Sheeran’s manager, said in a statement that it was difficult to estimate the exact value of the money lost by his client as a result of Kwiatowski’s scam, but the cost of abandoning a track could run into six figures.
He said the hacking had caused Sheeran distress due to his personal life being violated, as well his music being taken.
Two unreleased Ed Sheeran songs were in the hacker’s library, which the singer’s manager claims could have cost him six figures in earnings (Picture: PA)
Speaking after sentencing, City of London Police’s Daryl Fryatt said: ‘Kwiatkowski was a highly skilled individual who unfortunately saw potential in using his abilities unlawfully.
‘Not only did he cause several artists and their production companies significant financial harm, he deprived them of the ability to release their own work.
‘Kwiatkowski will now face the consequences of his actions, and I hope this result will also make his customers refrain from purchasing illegal content again.’
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The hacker stole unreleased music from artists such as Ed Sheeran, Kanye West, Frank Ocean and Post Malone before selling it online.