Russia's No Haven for BitTorrent Sites?
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: BitTorrent, Tracker, Russia, Interfilm | Themes: Digital Entertainment
Russian police recently raided the Moscow office of BitTorrent tracker website Interfilm, the first ever in a country considered to be a safe haven for said tracking websites.
Russian police recently raided the Moscow office of BitTorrent tracker website Interfilm, the first ever raid in a country considered to be a safe haven for said tracking websites. The authorities arrested its founders--a married couple known only as "Ripper" and "Nadazhda"--and several of its staff based on evidence gathered before the raid. According to TorrentFreak, Interfilm was a major player in the "cammed" movie business, and even had ties to piracy groups outside the country, mainly to exchange the latest films.
On Tuesday of last week (May 26th), the Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs Investigation Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs raided the Moscow facility on grounds that the website received revenue through advertising, and also through a "premium" download package whose monthly fees went straight into the couple's pockets. Both the MPAA and the Russian anti-piracy group RAPO are speculated to have pressured the Russian police into conducting the Moscow incursion although no formal announcements have been issued by either party.
After the raid, Interfilm went down for a brief period of time, only to re-appear shortly thereafter as a fully functional tracker website hosted by LeaseWeb in The Netherlands. According to the Russian media, the owners of Interfilm may face up to six years in prison, and up to $17,000 in fines if convicted under Part 3 of Article 146 of the Criminal Code.
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The MPAA at it again....This time in Russia. Now let's bring on the Russia jokes.
Russia is just like any other country, with rules and regulations... Its not the best idea to just make jokes and stuff. and yes you can get screwed over in any part of the world.
In Soviet Russia, music downloads YOU.
In soviet russia, Cops break your face for downloading music... oohh wait...
let's make hammers illegal, too
hammers can be used to kill people
I wonder how much actually went into the couples 'pockets' There is a cost of running a website/tracker. You gotta pay for that bandwidth, and that's a cost of operation, not a pocket.
Then again, I'm not sure of all the details, so I really can't have an opinion of what's going on.
I'm all for downloading. But, if the owners are making a living off of it, that's going to far. You should use the money to maintain the hardware and that's it. In other words, don't quit your day job.
yawn, you'll never be able to stop piraters and your sales will go down as we STEAL IT BECAUSE WE ARE BROKE... you can thank the companies that pay us dirt while the execs get a crap ton of cash.
In russia, music pirates you.
Russia is such a democracy anyway...
Cops there don't need a reason to crack down on you; and they probably couldn't care less about piracy. Chances are they do it themselves.
The question is, who did the MPAA and RAPO bribe to have the cops leave their crack dealing business for a day and go after InterFilm?
I totaly agree with svdb and Antilycus
So within minutes/hours, the website moved from Russia to the Netherlands? Sounds like they had a contingiency plan in place, guess they were expecting this raid.
How expensive are web server in the Bahamas or on indian reservations in Canada? Why don't trackers set up shop in the same places all those illegal gambling sites do?
People are getting it all wrong; Russia isn't a safe haven for Torrent sites, Ukraine is...oops, did I say that out loud?
titanius mysteriously disappears....
they should put trackers/website in a country where you won't need to worry about the MPAA or RIAA or any of their stooges.