Sharebeast’s success also caught the attention of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), who approached the FBI. The RIAA had repeatedly sent letters to Sharebeast advising the company that it was violating copyright law and to take the music down. Each time, Sharebeast would simply change the URLs for the songs without actually removing the songs from the site. Over three years, the RIAA e-mailed Sargsyan more than 100 times asking him to remove copyrighted music from his website, but he wouldn’t comply.

In addition to tracking the URL changes, in 2015, the FBI and international partners in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom seized all three websites and conducted authorized searches at Sargsyan’s home and office. The evidence from these searches directly tied Sargsyan to distributing copyrighted songs and albums via his websites.

Investigators found Sargsyan was living the high life with his ill-gotten gains. He owned multiple properties in Los Angeles and a high-end car and frequently traveled. More than $160,000 was seized from several of Sargsyan’s bank accounts.

Last year, Sargsyan pleaded guilty to criminal copyright infringement. In March 2018, he was sentenced to five years in prison. Although Sargsyan pleaded guilty to causing $52 million in losses to the music industry, the RIAA estimates the losses are more than $6 billion.

“He had clearly invested in the infrastructure of the websites; they ran smoothly despite the pop-ups. Sargsyan knew the more people who visited the site to download music, the more money he would make from the ads,” Riley said. “It really was a brilliant scheme.”

Riley emphasized copyright violations are not a victimless crime. They cost revenue and jobs for creators who produce the work that music fans enjoy—not just for artists, but also for writers, producers, and others in the industry.

“If creators aren’t being compensated for the work they create because of copyright violations, you may not have people generating the content that we love to enjoy as music fans,” Riley said. “It’s important to safeguard creators’ intellectual property.”