BitTorrent Sites Shut Down, Admins Arrested

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by Ernesto

In a renewed effort to put a halt to piracy, Spanish Police shut down two BitTorrent sites. Todotorrente.com and trackertdt.com were both taken offline and three administrators were arrested and accused of facilitating “copyright infringement”.

The main target, todotorrente.com, was one of the largest Spanish BitTorrent sites in Spain with tens of thousands active users. On the site we now read the following message (translated):

“CLOSED BY JUDICIAL ORDER”

According to the Police, todotorrente.com was responsible for more than 500,000 € in losses to copyright holders, while the site itself made more than 30,000 € in profits. Numbers that can’t be backed up by any evidence of course, but we’re used to that.

Todotorrente.com was not the only site affected by the raids. In addition, the police took down trackertdt.com, a sister site of todotorrente.com. Gamesfive.net, another sister site, now redirects to blackdivx.org.

This is not the first time that Spanish authorities take action against BitTorrent sites. Last year, 15 administrators of BitTorrent and eDonkey sites were arrested, in the largest P2P raid in Spanish history. Most of the sites that were shut down last year (17 in total) remain unavailable up until today, however, pctorrent.com now redirects to newpct.com, one of the largest BitTorrent sites in Spain.

A bittersweet week for Spanish pirates.

Torrent Freak Source

[Amplify]

It seems that there have taken action in portuguese sites aswell.

The links are listed by repliers at Torrent Freak, in case you're interested. I didn't post them because the translation is a bit off (using google's translator) so one might not enjoying reading such.

[quartermile]

It seems that there have taken action in portuguese sites aswell.

The links are listed by repliers at Torrent Freak, in case you're interested. I didn't post them because the translation is a bit off (using google's translator) so one might not enjoying reading such.

well then help out a bit here ;)

just one of the available links translated.

http://jn.sapo.pt/2007/07/26/policia_e_tri..._pela_asae.html

Three illegal content sharing sites on the internet were yesterday closed down in a joint action by the judiciary police and the safe food and economic authority under the scope of an operation to combat piracy in ovar, leiria and lisboa, the respective co-ordinators of the sites have been arrested too, among them a member of the PSP.

According to the Lusa agency, the operation is the result of the combat of the illegal reproduction and sharing of content protected by copyrights through the internet.

Among the blocked sites, we find www.zetuga.com, www.zemula.org and www.btuga.pt, through which almost 200,000 users proceed to exchange material protected by copyrights without proper authorisation. among the available services, some in return for payment, others in return for compulsory sharing, the users made use of and shared films, music, computer programs, games, covers and other applications, through a file sharing program established in a protocol called BitTorrent.

In the operation, that involved 23 members of both groups and happened on various sites, two company servers, the latest computers, a great amount of multimedia support, 4 external hard disks and various documents were seized.

According to ASAE, the value of the confiscated materials, while difficult to evaluate, is high, and the operation will have been a huge setback to the reproduction and sharing of copyrighted materials.

The co-ordinators of the sites, among them a member of the PSP, were charged and are subject to terms of identity and residence