Leader of Ninjavideo online piracy site gets prison

A federal judge sentenced a leader of the online piracy site Ninjavideo.net to prison on Friday, making him the second person imprisoned as part of the online piracy case.

Matthew David Howard Smith, 24, of Raleigh, N.C., was sentenced to 14 months in prison and two years of supervised release; he will also have to repay $172,387 and surrender the bank accounts and computer equipment used to run the site.

Ninjavideo operated from February 2008 until it was shut down by the feds in June 2010. Prosecutors say the site provided millions of visitors with pirated downloads of movies and TV shows in high-quality formats. 

Most videos were free, but users could pay $25 to access forums with a wider range of material. Some videos, including the hit 2009 movie "Avatar," were posted on NinjaVideo before their release in theaters, according to court documents. 

The site was seized as part of the ongoing "Operation In Our Sites" campaign by the Department of Justice and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Founder Hana Beshara was sentenced to 22 months in jail earlier this month.

—Brendan Sasso contributed to this post.

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