The ongoing initiative is part of a collaboration with Hollywood studios represented by the Federation Against Copyright Theft and the major recording labels of the BPI. Many torrent sites received letters in which they were warned they were breaking the law. Shutting down, the letters implied, would be the safest course of action.

“We have grounds to suspect that as owners and/or operators of the XXXXX website, you are committing the offense of communication to the public under s.107(2A) of the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 (“CDPA”). Section 107(2A) is an indictable offence punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment,” the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau warned.

At the end of June the UK government announced the formation of a new intellectual property crime unit to launch in September with £2.5 of public funding. It then became clear that the new unit at City of London Police and the threats to torrent sites were closely connected.

To our knowledge only a couple of sites have actually shut down after receiving a police letter. Admins of other sites discussed the threats with TorrentFreak on condition of anonymity but we get the impression that for them it will be business as usual next month.

The Intellectual Property Crime Unit issued threats to sites not just in the UK but all over the world and it’s expected that they will coordinate with organizations such as Europol and Interpol to an attempt to shut them down.

Of course, the police won’t be initiating these actions on their own. They are working closely with record labels and movie studios who are providing the initial guidance and intelligence. While this is nothing particularly new, it seems that the new unit could be the missing link on information sharing absent for almost a decade.

“The introduction of a specialist team in the City of London police to deal with online IP crime provides the focus to deliver the information sharing first envisaged in the Enterprise Act 2002,” intellectual property law litigator Iain Connor told UK law firm Pinsent Masons.

Up until 2002, law enforcement agencies had limited ability to share information for use in civil cases, Connor says, but even since then copyright cases have not been a police priority. He points out that the prosecution of SurfTheChannel admin Anton Vickerman was a private prosecution brought by the studios, but that dynamic will change with the introduction of the new unit.

“The new IP crime unit provides rights holders with the opportunity to refer intelligence on criminal activity to the authorities safe in the knowledge that action will be taken and that when a prosecution is secured, that prosecution can be used to obtain financial recovery through the civil courts,” Connor said.

Previously, private organizations like FACT have been accused of acting like the police, even though they have no formal official powers. It seems likely that with the advent of the new unit in September, FACT and the BPI will be able to call on the police to carry out actions on their behalf, almost as if they were an extension of their own organizations.

Earlier legal analysis on the threats to torrent sites is available here.

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

The first signs came last week when a major torrent site received a letter from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), a unit set up following the Government’s National Fraud Review. The unit has a mission to identify serial offenders and organized crime gangs in order to disrupt their activities.

The letter (copy below), sent to “The owners and/or operators of the website known as ‘XXXXX’,” states that the NFIB has become particularly concerned by websites causing harm to the UK’s creative economy.

“We are therefore currently working on an initiative with Government and industry bodies to help prevent, deter and disrupt the criminal activity linked to websites involved in online copyright infringement. In that regard, we have reasonable grounds to suspect that through your ownership and/or operation of the website known as ‘XXXXX’, you are involved in online copyright infringement,” NFIB explain.

So far TorrentFreak is aware that at least two torrent sites have already received letters from the NFIB. Their operations are detailed as follows:

“XXXXX is a BitTorrent website that – without the permission of the copyright holder – actively provides UK internet users with a bespoke directory and search engine for torrent files. This enables users to find and download copyright content which would otherwise be time consuming or impossible to locate,” the letter notes.

Even though neither site is located in the UK, police believe that sites’ operators are committing crimes there.

“We have grounds to suspect that as owners and/or operators of the XXXXX website, you are committing the offense of communication to the public under s.107(2A) of the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 (“CDPA”). Section 107(2A) is an indictable offence punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment,” NFIB state.

But while allegations of copyright-related offenses are nothing out of the ordinary, in their letter the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau elevate the seriousness of file-sharing offenses to unprecedented levels.

“Further, we have grounds to suspect that as owners and/or operators of the XXXXX website, you are committing offenses under the Serious Crime Act 2007 by doing acts capable of encouraging and assisting communication to the public (under s.107(2A) of the CDPA); and/or distribution (under s.107(1)(e) of the CDPA) of copyright content seeded by others – intending or believing that those offenses will be encouraged or assisted.

“Such activity is an indictable offense under the Serious Crime Act 2007 and is punishable by up to ten years’ imprisonment (two years for encouraging/assisting communication to the public; and ten years for encouraging/assisting distribution),” the NFIB warn.

The letters conclude with advice for site operators to contact the NFIB immediately in order to “prevent the further commission of offenses.”

“If no contact is made before 14th June 2013 then you and/or the XXXXX website may face police action,” the letter concludes.

TorrentFreak contacted NFIB who confirmed that an initiative is indeed underway.

“City of London Police has begun an initiative to target websites that attract visitors by providing unauthorised access to copyrighted content for criminal gain. These websites are able to operate and profit from advertising on their sites without having licenses or paying the creators and owners of the films, TV programmes, music and publications,” a spokesman said in a statement.

“Intellectual property crime is a serious offense that is costing the UK economy hundreds of millions of pounds each year. Working with the UK advertising industry, City of London Police and rights holder groups FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft), BPI (British Recorded Music Industry) and The PA (The Publishers Association) are committed to tackling this problem.”

The BPI say that an NFIB officer was previously embedded with their anti-piracy unit.

“This appointment is the first secondment by NFIB into private industry, enabling City of London Police to develop a greater understanding of the illegal distribution and sale of music online by organised crime gangs,” the music group reveals.

The NFIB add that their initiative also seeks to protect UK consumers from “malware and other harmful programs that may be downloaded unwittingly from sites that provide illegally offered content.”

Any site or service in receipt of the NFIB letter can contact us in confidence at the usual address.

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