A dealer who sold unreleased Coldplay tracks on the dark web has been spared jail, despite making significant profits from stolen music.
Luton: A 22-year-old named Skylar Dalziel was caught selling unreleased music from big names like Coldplay and Shawn Mendes on the dark web. She made around £42,000 from this illegal activity between April 2021 and January 2023.
How did she do it? Well, she hacked into cloud storage accounts of these artists to get her hands on the music. The police got a tip-off from the recording industry and raided her home in Luton.
When they checked her computer, they found she had access to a whopping 290,000 tracks! That’s a lot of music. She was even transferring her earnings to bank accounts in the US, and now the authorities are working with Homeland Security to track down those involved.
In court, she received a 21-month jail sentence, but it’s suspended for 24 months. She also has to do 180 hours of unpaid work. The Crown Prosecution Service made it clear that her actions showed a total disregard for the artists’ hard work.
They pointed out that this kind of crime doesn’t just hurt the artists but also the people working in the music industry. It’s a selfish act that can lead to significant job losses.
Detective Constable Daryl Fryatt emphasized that stealing music for profit is illegal and harms the livelihoods of many. He mentioned that this type of crime contributes to over 80,000 job losses each year. The authorities are determined to track down anyone else involved in this scheme.
