The U.S Department of Justice has reportedly filed its first criminal charges against Android piracy websites, Snappzmarket and Appbucket.
According to the Justice Department, the culprits cracked Android apps in order to free them of the anti-piracy protections and uploaded them on the websites' catalogue with other apps procured in the same manner.
In 2012, the websites were seized by the government and now four people have been charged with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement that can lead to imprisonment for upto five years if found guilty, the Verge reported.
An estimated 1 million illegal downloads worth 1.7 million dollars was facilitated by the piracy websites between May 2011 and August 2012.