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The 23-year-old, from Ipswich, made £131,000, according to police.
According to CPS, a search of Kwiatkowski’s laptop uncovered 565 audio files from dozens of musicians, including songs by Vert and Sheeran.
Kwiatkowski, who admitted receiving bitcoin cryptocurrency through the songs, was jailed at Ipswich Crown Court on Friday.
Joanne Jakymec of CPS said Kwiatkowski was completely ignoring the creativity of musicians, selfishly stealing their music and selling it for himself on the dark web.
Kwiatkowski pleaded guilty to three counts of unauthorized access to computer material, 14 counts of selling copyright-infringing items, one count of converting criminal property, and two counts of possessing criminal property.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office launched an investigation in 2019 after several musicians’ management companies reported online that someone known as Spirdark had gained access to accounts and was selling content.
The investigation linked the email address used to set up Spirdark encrypted accounts to Kwiatkowski, and ultimately determined that the IP address of the device used to hack into one of the accounts was his home address.
In September 2019, Kwiatkowski was arrested by officers from the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), part of the City of London Police. They seized seven devices, including a hard drive – which contained 1,263 unreleased songs by 89 artists.
A document kept on the hard drive summarises the method he used to obtain the songs, along with the seizure of bitcoins worth £64,000 at the time.
Kwiatkowski admitted to police that he hacked the musicians and sold their songs online, and also confirmed that he used the alias Spirdark.
Detective Daryl Fryatt from PIPCU said: “He not only caused a huge financial loss to several musicians and their production companies, but also deprived them of the ability to publish their work.”