The founder of NinjaVideo, a website that distributed pirated movies and TV shows for free on the Internet, pleaded guilty Friday to charges of conspiracy and criminal copyright infringement in federal court in Alexandria, Va.

Matthew David Smith, 23, of Raleigh, N.C., was arrested and his site closed down under a federal law enforcement program called Operation In Our Sites that involves several government agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Civil liberties groups have criticized the program because, they say, it is being undertaken without meaningful court oversight, with no chance for the targets to defend themselves before their websites are taken down and a highly cumbersome process for challenge afterward.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently filed court papers in New York attacking Operation In Our Sites.

A court is hearing an appeal of a lower court decision that upheld the seizure by ICE of two websites, Rojadirecta.com and Rojadirecta.org, owned by a Spanish company, Puerto 80.