In an interview last year, Simanavicius revealed that one of his biggest problems comes from BitTorrent sites. Pointing to the efficiency of online pirates, Simanavicius spoke of popular Lithuanian artist Vilnius Andrius Mamontovas holding a press conference where he gave out a handful of promo CDs to gathered journalists. Within thirty minutes the album was already available for download on the country’s torrent sites, a situation Simanavicius hopes to do something about.

Simanavicius went on to explain that these days torrent sites have become “private”, i.e to gain access potential members need to be invited by existing members. Once on the site his team can begin tracking users and gathering evidence but this has its problems too, since their IP addresses can be identified by the site owners. Simanavicius says his staff counter this by using their home connections instead, which are much harder to identify.

There are around ten larger torrent sites but Lithuania also has a smaller problem in the shape of Direct Connect hubs, which number around eight. Simanavicius explains that they are doing everything they can to shut them down but says that the most prominent of Lithuania’s sites have moved to hosting outside the country. He says they have many difficulties with one particular Netherlands-based host but more recently the problems are coming from Ukrainian hosts who seem less inclined to take down sites and are very hard to even make contact with. Indeed, Demonoid seems to operate perfectly well from its Ukraine-based hosting. Nevertheless, Simanavicius says he has sent all his evidence to the Ukrainian Anti-Piracy Association and is now waiting for results. He’s been waiting 6 months so far, and nothing has happened.

Linkomanija is one of Lithuania’s biggest private trackers and a thorn in the side of the Lithuanian Anti-Piracy Association. Even though Simanavicius says they know who the owner is (his name is Kestas Ermanas) and have ordered him to close the site via email and standard post, the site remains open. Although Simanavicius seems determined to have the site closed, it is by no means clear that the site is even breaking any of Lithuania’s laws.

Of course, like many anti-piracy bosses, Simanavicius is making more than his fair share of enemies with his activities, even though his job seems almost impossible and his results limited at best. After the interview with Lithuanian publication lrytas.lt, a campaign was started to encourage donations to a fund which would be spent on having Simanavicius killed. Just a few weeks ago the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau tracked down the people allegedly responsible and made several arrests.

Unfortunately death threats are nothing new for Simanavicius. After taking apart a commercial physical piracy operation in recent years and seriously motivating the individuals behind it, it was discovered that he was being followed by people determined to blow up his car – with him inside it. The police foiled the plot.

Getting rid of Lithuanian BitTorrent sites might be a huge task for Simanavicius but unlike the physical pirates he upset previously, it’s doubtful that uTorrent users will try to kill him for closing their torrent site. In fact his job is so tough and results so low, they just might end up feeling sorry for him.

Then again, maybe not.

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

Of course, a country with plenty of ‘pirates’ has to have its own anti-piracy organization, and Lithuania is no different. The local anti-piracy outfit goes by the name ANVA, an acronym for ‘Antipiracines Veiklos Asociacija’. Their main targets are the local BitTorrent sites, which they have announced they will sue for millions in damages.

To use the word ‘Lithuania’ in a Lithuanian organization’s name requires government approval. Recently, ANVA changed its name to LANVA, after they succeeded in getting this authorization. This seal of approval may give the organization more credibility, but there is a small problem. They forgot to register the domain lanva.lt when they changed their name. Before, they were using anva.lt, but while they did make a new logo with the L included, registering a new domain didn’t come to mind.

Usually, mistakes like this can be easily overcome by paying a certain amount of money to the person who was smart enough to register the domain, but not this time. Kestas Ermanas, the owner of one of the largest BitTorrent sites in Lithuania, registered the domain as soon as he found out about the name change, and he is not planning to hand it over to his arch rival.

The domain Kestas bought currently displays the following message: “This is how it works. Whatever you sink, we build back up. Whomever you sue, ten new pirates are recruited. Wherever you go, we are already ahead of you. You are the past and the forgotten, we are the Internet and the future.”

LANVA has scheduled an emergency meeting next Thursday to discuss what they can do to get the lanva.lt domain in their possession. The chances that they will get the domain through a dispute are very slim though. There have been several cases in Lithuania where large companies sued owners of domain names, and they lost every single time.

This is not the first time that an anti-piracy organization has had a domain dispute with a BitTorrent site. October last year The Pirate Bay got hold of the domain name of IFPI, under which they wanted to launch the “International Federation of Pirate Interests.” The case was later lost by The Pirate Bay, but the fact that they acquired it in the first place is yet another example of the tech illiteracy of these organizations.

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