Vasile Nastase, the head of the association for cultural development and copyrights protection announced at a press conference that 80 percent of all movies aired by TV-networks on Moldova are ‘pirated’.

The above doesn’t necessarily means that the movies came from an illegitimate online source.

However, Nastase stressed that in the majority of the cases movie studios are not paid when their films air on TV.

Changing the habits of the TV-executives is not an easy task though. Nastase’s organization tried to take a stand against the widespread piracy by local TV-networks, but failed so far.

By asking the authorities to get involved, he hopes to change this, and put an end to the madness.

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

After the Union made several complaints to authorities about the site, last week the prosecutor’s office in Moldova took action and seized the servers of TorrentsMD, taking it offline.

In an interview last week, copyright expert Dorian Chirosca said that the site’s operators potentially face three types of liability – civil, administrative and criminal. If it is decided that the site caused large damages it could be closed permanently and the owners may even face prison sentences of 3 to 5 years. However, it’s more likely a stiff fine could be handed down.

While it is now up to the prosecutor’s office to decide whether or not to proceed with charges against TorrentsMD and if it will remain closed, the Union of Producers of Phonograms and Videograms has announced that it is prepared to withdraw its complaint against the site as part of a negotiated settlement.

“We welcome a constructive dialogue,” said Union director Dorin Doronceanu during a press conference.

However, that dialogue will have one key condition – that torrent files linking to material to which the Union owns the copyright will all be removed from TorrentsMD.

“We are only interested in protecting the rights of Union members and local producers of audio-video,” Doronceanu explained. “The problems of other rights holders from abroad or those in the software industry can be solved by them personally.”

According to Doronceanu, the operators of TorrentsMD are prepared to meet the Union’s demands.

“They promise that when we reach a common denominator, all [torrent] files linking to our works will be blocked. Moreover, we have created special software that will automatically block users from posting the files that are protected by us.”

At the moment it is still unclear if any agreement has actually been reached, but the operators of TorrentsMD seem optimistic about the site returning soon.

“TMD could be back today or tomorrow,” they said in an announcement this morning.

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