A young "computer-minded" Sydney man made half a million dollars by ripping off streaming subscriptions but has skipped jail time to use his "amazing ability" to serve the community instead.
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Evan Leslie McMahon was sentenced on Friday to serve an intensive correction order for two years and two months.
Judge John Pickering described the case among the most unusual and novel he had witnessed and said McMahon's motivation was especially so.
The 23-year-old successfully raked in nearly $US500,000 (nearly $A650 million) by creating various websites that offered cheaper prices to streaming services including Netflix and Spotify.
"Large amounts of money ... that was not his idea or motivation or desire at all," Judge Pickering said in the NSW District Court.
His autistic spectrum disorder was considered by two medical experts to have caused his fixation on computer problem-solving.
"(And) an excitement or challenge to get behind this issue of the Netflix wall and see in a way how far he could push this aspect."
Not a dollar was spent and all money was immediately forfeited following detection by the FBI who then handed the matter over to Australian authorities.
In one of the "quirky ironies" of this case, the Australian Federal Police made a profit after converting the money that was stored in Bitcoin.
The Mosman High School graduate pleaded guilty to two offences related to the elaborate "account generator" operation between 2015 and 2019, and asked for other matters to be taken into consideration upon sentencing.
By the time of his arrest in March 2019, he was employing assistants and juggling more than 150 fake identities and had engaged at least 152,863 registered users.
Judge Pickering said the greedy customers who opted to pay $US10.97 for a lifetime subscription were all engaging in criminal conduct similar to purchasing pirated DVDs on the street.
While Netflix intellectual property was being stolen, it was hard to determine how much financial loss it suffered given many of McMahon's customers would likely never pay full price for this service as some form of "moral code".
McMahon avoided triggering PayPal's money-laundering alarms by collecting fees through 102 unverified accounts he'd established in fake names.
This level of sophistication in hiding the money showed he knew it was wrong and did not want to be detected, Judge Pickering said.
The thousands of people corporations such as Netlifx employ was significant and these industries would "fall apart" if computer hackers destroyed their business model.
But following his arrest, McMahon had made a significant turn-around using his technology literacy for "pro-social activity" and showed a genuine desire to now become a positive force of change in this particular area.
Judge Pickering thanked McMahon for his co-operation with the court saying it would have been almost too difficult a case to put before a jury, and congratulated him on his progress thus far.
"You can still do so much in your life that can be so beneficial for society."
Australian Associated Press
