WASHINGTON, DC — A U.S. federal district court has sentenced a former peer-to-peer network administrator to 18 months in prison for his role in facilitating online piracy.Daniel Dove, 26, of Clintwood, VA, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge James P. Jones, who also ordered the former EliteTorrents.org employee to serve three years of supervised release and fined him $20,000.

A jury on June 26th found Dove guilty of conspiracy and felony copyright infringement. At trial, evidence was presented that proved Dove recruited members with high-speed internet connections who uploaded pirated content and made it available using BitTorrent technology. The site was active until May 25, 2005, and according to federal prosecutors, it delivered 700 pirated works to more than 125,000 members around the world. The movies were downloaded more than 1.1 million times, according to court documents.

In addition, prosecutors said Elite Torrents distributed “massive amounts of high-value software, video games and music . The wide variety of content selection included illegal copies of copyrighted works before they were available in retail stores or movie theaters.”

Court documents also indicate Dove operated a high-speed server, which he used to distribute pirated content to Elite Torrents’ members.

Dove’s conviction is the eighth resulting from Operation D-Elite, a federal crackdown against the illegal distribution of copyrighted movies, software, games and music over P2P networks.