A dealer of unreleased and stolen famous musicians’ tracks is sentenced

A dealer of stolen unreleased music from famous musicians via the dark web through cryptocurrency exchanges has been today sentenced/imprisoned (3 January 2025).

Skylar Dalziel, 22, of Luton, was sentenced today to 21 months imprisonment suspended for 24 months at Luton Crown Court for 14 counts related to purchasing and selling of copyrighted music without the consent of the recording artists or label.
 
In June 2022, the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) at City of London Police investigation began following a referral from the international recording industry (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry). The Recording Industry Association of America supplied evidence showing that Dalziel had purchased six music tracks on the dark web which were unreleased and not available for sale and linked to three different record labels. These purchases were made using Bitcoin.

A raid on Dalziel’s Luton home uncovered various hard drives and showed she had access to several thousand unreleased musical tracks including those of Coldplay, Shawn Mendes, Melanie Martinez, Taylor Upsahl, and Bebe Rexha.
 
It is estimated that she made around £35,000 ($45,000) in selling ‘hacked’ copyrighted music via the dark web.

Richard Partridge of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Dalziel had complete disregard for the musician’s creativity and hard work producing original songs and the subsequent potential loss of earnings. 

“This type of activity doesn’t just impact on the artists themselves but also on employees of the record companies involved. She selfishly used their music to make money for herself by selling it on the dark web.”

Detective Constable Daryl Fryatt, from the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) at City of London Police, said: “Stealing copyrighted material for your own financial gain is illegal. It jeopardises the work of artists and the livelihoods of the people who work with them to create and release their music. It’s estimated that this type of criminal activity contributes to over 80,000 job losses each year.

“Today’s sentencing sends a clear message that we have the ability and tools to locate cyber criminals and hold them to account for their actions. We believe Dalziel was working with suspects overseas and are now working to identify them.”

The CPS is committed to working with law enforcement agencies to stop activities of cyber criminals and bring them to justice.