Against STF, judge considers sale of pirated internet as a criminal offense

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The Federal Supreme Court defined, in October 2017 , that selling pirated internet cannot be classified as a crime of clandestine communications activity. However, a man who generated and distributed internet via radio in the south of Porto Alegre has just been convicted of the crime.


The conviction , in the first instance of the Federal Court, says that the offensive attitude against telecommunications activities is a crime typified in article 183 of Law 9,472/97.

The defendant was sentenced to two years in B2B Lead prison and paid a 10-day fine, the value of which corresponds to 1/30 of the minimum wage in force at the time of the criminal act. The custodial sentence was replaced by two restrictions on rights, consisting of the provision of services to the community and monetary provision.

According to the complaint filed by the Federal Public Ministry, the man was arrested in the act by the police at the station in possession of various materials linked to the distribution of internet signals, such as hubs, switches, antennas, cables, NET controls, accounting notebooks , modems , routers and transmitters. There was also a tower approximately 20 meters high, with several radio/ wireless distribution antennas .

During judicial interrogation, he confessed that he contracted an internet package from the company NET and passed the signal on to his customers, charging a monthly fee that varied according to the speed of the service provided. The defendant's defense requested his acquittal, arguing that the accused's conduct had no harmful potential. In other words, it would be insignificant in criminal terms.



The sentence does not use the recent jurisprudence of the Federal Supreme Court, but cites understandings of the Superior Court of Justice and the Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region "to the effect that the conduct of clandestinely retransmitting an internet signal via radio is not, under any circumstances, insignificant from a criminal point of view.”  With information from the Press Office of the Federal Justice of RS.