IFPI Pressure Leads Police to Detain File-Sharing Students
Written by enigmax on December 17, 2007As part of its anti-piracy activities within ‘Operation Premiere’, Czech police raided a students dormitory in the Prague-Strahov area. As well confiscating many terabytes of pirate material, police detained seven students who they claim form part of Internet pirate network. They are facing 5 years in jail.
Following an investigation and pressure by the IFPI, Czech police carried out raids as part of ‘Operation Premiere’ - action against alleged P2P internet pirates.
According to a report and additional information from the Prague Municipal Police website, the raids were carried out on the Prague-Strahov dormitory which is usually inhabited by students from the Czech Technical University in Prague. The police seized a large amount of computer related equipment and tens of terabytes of pirated material - otherwise known as ‘warez’ - worth an estimated several millions of dollars.
The police detained seven individuals accused of copyright infringement with two of those being taken into custody.
The students, if found guilty, face up to five years in jail.
According to the Business Software Alliance Global Piracy Report 2006, legislation and criminal enforcement actions helped piracy rates drop in the Czech Republic from 40% in 2005 to 39% in 2006, which can hardly be considered a success when the rate was 40% back in 2003. In real terms, the situation is actually getting worse. Even though there is a percentage reduction, claimed losses are increasing due to the market growing in size each year. In 2003, an overall piracy rate of 40% ‘generated’ $106 million in losses, versus a 39% piracy rate in 2006 which ‘generated’ $147 million in losses.
The Czech Republic made piracy headlines worldwide back in July when a cam copy of The Simpsons Movie turned up on BitTorrent sites having been filmed at the movie’s Czech premiere. Again, a student is at the center of this controversy. The 19 year old man - who recorded the movie in a CineStar theater - is accused of copyright infringement and is facing the prospect of 5 years in jail and a $300,000 fine.
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30 Responses
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anti piracy can kiss my nuts
Moral of the story is, down’t share terabytes of pirated shit if you can’t hide it.
Are they on a path to victory??? everyday it’s getting worst.
So there’s no real crime in Czecholosvakia for the Police to investigate? Isn’t it wonderful they can fill their time enforcing IP crime laws instead of worrying about murder, rape, or other crimes against people?
[quote comment="241628"]worth an estimated several millions of dollars.[/quote]
wow !!!!
[quote comment="241625"]Moral of the story is, down’t share terabytes of pirated shit if you can’t hide it.[/quote]
Yeah, how about don’t download terabytes of shit - period.
If you just use BitTorrent to get the stuff you want, whilst seeding for a few days after download, you’re almost definetely gonna slip under the radar.
No, they are just fucking up peoples lives with that shit. 5 years in jail!! My go, in my contry people can stab or shooth a man, and get 2 month in jail. This is virtuel material in the http://WWW. I just don´t get it. This just make me want to share even more!
Who cares if a couple of students are arrested? You can get all the files you need on the internet anyway, like before those raids but with more seeders :)
Sorry but bullshit! This is so dam not logic. This contry is full of mafias, murders, rapes and more but they catch peoples who record movies and share them…
Pathetic capitalists ruining people’s lives for sharing data on the internet…
Makes me want to share more.
Apparently it was software in this case that they were sharing. Good reason to support open source!
[quote comment="241660"]Apparently it was software in this case that they were sharing. Good reason to support open source![/quote]
And, in reading other sources, they were also cracking the softwares protection themselves, something the above story leaves out in order to put more focus on the ooooooso bad file sharing community.
Those arrested weren’t just sharing files. Thats much more means to an arrest.
They forgot to tell you that Strahov is well known for warez distribution for the last 15 years. And everyone there who is involved in P2P has his HDDs crypted. So police just seized computers with crypted HDDs. Sad story. They just had to show IFPI they are still fighting pirates.
The article lacks mention that they seized Topsite FTP that was hosted there - at least according to czech news site.
Yep, this is anything but a simple file sharing case.
One article turned this into “file-sharing” and the rest just ran with it.
Creates more attention, typical torrentfreak.
Yawn… Bring me something that involves central trading, instead of underdogs.
Its wierd, you can copy something ctrl+c and ctrl+v and viola you got several millions of software on your desktop!
Now you go to jail for years because your kid smashed the keyboard, lol realy copyright needs to go for digital content tbfh..
Money realy grows on trees!
err Harddrives..
Any attempt to suppress the distribution of knowledge in any form, be it art, software or whatever is a crime against humanity.
My compliments,
TheCaptain.
[quote comment="241634"]So there’s no real crime in Czecholosvakia for the Police to investigate? Isn’t it wonderful they can fill their time enforcing IP crime laws instead of worrying about murder, rape, or other crimes against people?[/quote]
– I am COMPLETELY with you on this one, Hiro81.
It’s so sad when a government doesn’t even CARE anymore whether the public know it’s working for big companies OVER the interests of its people - the real issues that would help its people - the drugs trade, arms trade, organised (and I can’t state this boldly enough) FOR PROFIT crime, murders etc etc.
Let us not lose our voice, citizens of these countries.
Let us NOT ALLOW our ELECTED officials in government to FORGET that they are put in their seats to serve and help US the public, the citizens and individual human beings of these nations! NOT to serve these sometimes behemoth creations called “big businesses” just because they have money.
WE, the PEOPLE elect you, our government to SERVE & REPRESENT us and PROTECT US from such things as EXPLOITATION by multinationals and other forces for our ill.
PROTECT, not HURT..
Anyone who keeps THAT many terabytes of illegal data in one place is a fucking moron, just asking to get caught.
Government officials just do what the highest bidder says. So, really, filesharers should just write a letter and ask how much a law costs now days, and ask if we can buy one.
Lets face it, sounds like i’m taking the piss, but this is really how the world works now. We all know it, although some don’t want to believe it.
Judge: For the heinous crime of file sharing, I sentence you to life imprisonment. Next case.
…
Judge: For the crime of attempted murder, I sentence you to 5 days probation and a $10 fine. Next case.
…
Judge: For the crime of aggravated genocide, crimes against humanity, child molestation, and going to see CarrotTop in concert, I sentence you to community service.
First of all there is no Czechoslovakia, mate.
Second thing - hunting for harmless students is way easier than hunting for crooks, murderers and thiefs…;-)
What is this, a press release reprint?
lol che,
yeah, i wondered why he said Czechoslovakia, is he in the 1940’s?
And yes, students don’t fight back in the same way a rapist/murderer/crime-boss would, lol.
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