TorrentFreak

• Ernesto
• May 4, 2007
• 33
• admins,
  bittorrent_tracker,
  copyright_infringement,
  dvds,
  torrentbits
• Print

The popular Romanian BitTorrent tracker Torrentbits.ro was raided and the two admins of the site were placed under arrest. Torrentbits was founded little over a year ago but was already among the 200 most visited websites in Romania. Both admins are charged with copyright infringement and face up to 4 years in prison.

Torrentbits is a private BitTorrent tracker with over 16.000 members, mostly Romanians. The admins, both citizens from the Romanian capital Bucharest were arrested Thursday morning.

The police said the tracker was one year old, but for the last 6 months the administrators have been asking for donations and running ads on the site, which attracted the attention of the police officers.

A 2 month investigation lead the police to an apartment in Bucharest where they arrested the two 40-year old admins. In addition they seized 4 computers and 5,200 cds and DVDs, some of which contained copyrighted material. This indicates that the two were not only running Torrentbits, but that they were also selling pirates CDs and DVDs.

The two were released from custody Thursday afternoon, but are charged with copyright infringement, and both face 4 years in jail and a $10.000 fine. A video clip that shows the raid is posted in this Romanian news article.

Torrentbits is a private BitTorrent tracker with over 16.000 members, mostly Romanians. The admins, both citizens from the Romanian capital Bucharest were arrested Thursday morning. The police said the tracker...