Paul J. McNulty, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia announced today that Billy J. Brown, 53 of Sterling, Virginia, was sentenced to 12 months incarceration and a fine of $1,000 by the Honorable T.S. Ellis III, United States District Judge. Brown was sentenced following his plea of guilty to creating and selling musical compact discs in violation of the criminal copyright laws.

From January 1997, until April 17, 2002, Brown illegally transferred copyrighted musical works on to a total of 24 compilation CDs, without license agreements or authorization by the copyright holders. The copyrighted music was then reproduced, packaged and sold by Brown in conjunction with his role as a D.J. at line dancing events held throughout the United States, or over the Internet through Brown's mail order business, BJ's Music Productions. Brown contracted with a professional data reproduction service to create over 17,000 illegal music CDs, which he sold for between $12 and $20 each. Brown agreed that his actions resulted in a loss to the copyright holders of between $200,000 and $350,000.

Prosecuting this case for the United States are Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott J. Stein and Christopher Merriam, Trial Attorney, of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, Department of Justice. The case was investigated by Detective Bob Athing of the Fairfax County Police Department, with assistance from the United States Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force and Recording Industry Association of America.

• More information on: Defendant's Plea
• More information on: Protecting Intellectual Property Rights
• More information on: Intellectual Property Crime Cases

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