Ed Sheeran and Lil Uzi Vert’s Hacker is Facing Prison Time

Bad habits result in…jail. Adrian Kwiatkowski is dealing with jail after absconding with unreleased music he reportedly hacked from singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran and hip-hop artist Lil Uzi Vert following an investigation that started in 2019.

Ed Sheeran is a polarizing musician. Some love his songs, others imagine he’s a pop sellout chasing a examine, and one man apparently simply wished to hack him. That man was Adrian Kwiatkowski, who authorities say hacked the “Bad Habits” singer-songwriter together with rapper Lil Uzi Vert, getting away with a few of their unreleased materials. Kwiatkowski, a 23-year-old from England’s Ipswich is now dealing with 18 months in jail for his actions, says BBC News.

“He selfishly stole their music to make money for himself by selling it on the dark web,” stated Chief crown prosecutor Joanne Jakymec, as quoted by the BBC.

A search of Kwiatkowski’s laptop computer revealed that the hacker had 565 audio recordsdata, a few of which have been unreleased tracks from each musicians—two particularly belonged to Sheeran. After promoting the fabric on the black marketplace for cryptocurrency, reviews present that Kwiatkowski made £131,000, or roughly $148,085.

Authorities launched an investigation in 2019 after a number of musicians claimed to have been hacked by somebody underneath the pseudonym of Spirdark. After tracing Spirdark’s electronic mail and IP tackle to the UK, the City of London Police have been alerted and Kwiatkowski was arrested that September. In addition to the 565 audio recordsdata on Kwiatkowski’s laptop computer, authorities discovered an exterior arduous drive that contained an extra 1,263 songs by 89 artists.

Kwiatkowski admitted to receiving Bitcoin funds in alternate for the songs and pleaded responsible to a few fees of unauthorized entry to laptop materials, 14 fees of promoting copyrighted materials, one cost of changing legal property, and two fees of possession of legal property.

Now, Kwiatkowski is taking a look at 18 months in jail. That certain is a number of work to listen to some half-baked Ed Sheeran tunes.