For Andrew and Natalia Lopukhovs, the former administrators of the now defunct Interfilm BitTorrent site, the timing of this year’s talks involving Russia is far from ideal.

The Moscow couple have just been charged for their role in running the site and the subsequent unlawful distribution of a sample 30 movies including Hollywood blockbusters Resident Evil 3, 28 Weeks Later and Shrek 3.

According to an announcement by Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin, the Lopukhovs stand accused of violating the rights of several local and U.S. film companies including Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount, Warner Bros., Disney and Universal.

Keeping up the tradition of only dealing with telephone number-sized amounts when referring to claimed piracy losses, the studios say that the pair cost them 38 billion rubles – a staggering $1.23 billion.

The operation against the couple goes back several years. Following complaints from movie companies and the involvement of anti-piracy group/MPA founder member RAPO, an investigation was initiated and ran between April 2007 and September 2008.

According to a source close to RAPO, their breakthrough in the case came when foreign sources furnished the anti-piracy outfit with a complete copy of the Interfilm website.

“This was not just saved pages, but also the files that stored all the data administration, including the IP-addresses of everyone who ever came to the site,” said the source. “With this information, investigators traced the Lopukhovs.”

The Lopukhovs, who used a range of aliases including Ripper, Shturman, Nadezhda and Piratka, are said to have maintained a relationship with a pirate in Germany called Sergei, known by his online alias Apple. Between them they are said to have uploaded movies to Interfilm and another site, Puzkarapuz.ru.

But by May 2009 it was all over. The Lopukhovs were raided at their Moscow home by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs on claims that Interfilm was a major source of cammed movies. The site, they added, also had arrangements to supply piracy groups outside the country with the latest releases.

Interfilm was hosted at Dutch ISP LeaseWeb but was subsequently shut down. It is said to continue under new ownership at Bithouse.org. Puzkarapuz.org appears to be fully operational.

Confirming their indictments, Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin said the Lopukhovs are accused of committing crimes under Part 3 of Article 146 of the Criminal Code. While the charges carry a fine of only 500,000 rubles (around $16,200), the pair could be sentenced to a maximum of 6 years in jail. A trial date has not yet been set.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

“This release is created exclusively for interfilm.ru.”

Although these words may not have rung a bell with all viewers, those who use BitTorrent know Interfilm.ru as a prominent BitTorrent tracker. The site was raided in 2009 after the MPAA applied pressure on the Russian authorities, and it is now at the center of copyright infringement claim which runs to a staggering $1.25 billion.

It is not uncommon for this voice-over message to appear in movie torrents uploaded to Interfilm, but it is quite unusual for National State Television to broadcast them.

The message was first picked up by a Belarusian blogger who posted it on his website, from where it spread to several major news outlets including Lenta.ru. National State Television, who allegedly aired the pirated copy of The Hurt Locker, have yet to respond to the mishap.

It is of course painful that this slip-up should happen during the Academy Award ceremony, and that it references the first ever BitTorrent site to be raided in Russia. The Hurt Locker makers, who sued thousands of BitTorrent users in the United States last year, will obviously be upset at this blatant act of copyright infringement.

A DVD copy of The Hurt Locker leaked online in January 2009, several months before the official release. In the months that followed pirated copies were downloaded by millions of people, and now it also has the dubious honor of being the first ‘torrented’ movie to appear on national television.

Update: A spokeswoman for Belarus’ National State television said that proper licenses for the film were acquired through the Russian company GALA Media. The phrase mentioning Interfilm.ru could be a “technical error”, she noted.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

So Tuesday last week, May 26th, the Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs Investigation Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted a raid against the founders the Interfilm BitTorrent tracker.

During the raid on the site’s Moscow headquarters, the police arrested the founders of Interfilm, a married couple known online as ‘Ripper’ and ‘Nadezhda’ and several site staff. The authorities claim that the Interfilm tracker is a major source of cammed movies and also has an arrangement with piracy groups outside the country to exchange the latest releases.

Russian anti-piracy group RAPO (a founder member of the MPA) claims that the site carried advertising and although users had free access to the site, higher download speeds could be achieved by making a payment to the site’s owners.

Although Interfilm reportedly went down after the raid, it is now apparently fully operational, hosted by LeaseWeb in The Netherlands.

Russian media is speculating that the owners of Interfilm are facing up to six years in jail and a fine of 500,000 rubles (approx $16,200) if convicted under Part 3 of Article 146 of the Criminal Code.

According to lawyer Victor Naumov, a legal loophole which saved the owners of AllofMP3 is unlikely to help the operators of Interfilm. “In the past there were different interpretations of legislation in the field of copyright, but now if a distributor of films or music is not in a licensing agreement with the rights holders, the violation is right there,” he said.

Following the arrests, the Producers Guild of Russia says it intends to push for changes in the law which would force ISPs to prevent illegal file-sharing.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.