Big German file share probe
p2pnet.net News:- The names of thousands of users of “illegal Internet piracy” sites are being examined by German police following a ‘probe’ involving MPAA offshoot GVU (Gesellschaft zur Verletzung von Urheberrechtsverletzungen eV – German Federation Against Copyright Theft).
“A spokesman for the state crime office in the eastern region of Thuringia said that an ongoing probe of four Germans had allowed authorities to crack the online address book of the site, unmasking” between 8,000 and 20,000 people,” says Agence France Presse.
“The four men at the center of the probe between the ages of 19 and 46 were detained in September. Three have since been remanded in custody. Authorities believe their Internet site, which was not named, posted revenues of nearly one million euros (1.3 million dollars).”
The GVU says it’s, "embedded in a worldwide network … with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA) as the umbrella organization," continuing:
"The GVU not only takes part in the investigations. It also offers specific legal advice both during the preliminary inquiry and the criminal proceedings."
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See:-
ongoing probe – German swoop on online piracy site nets thousands of user names, Agence France Presse, December 13, 2004
December 13th, 2004 at 8:37 pm
Maybe by “online address book” what they really mean is that when police raided the server, they looked up all the IP addresses from the server logs, and backtraced these IPs to reveal the individuals behind them.
The money the site made could have been from popup advertising. While it’s possible that people were paying for downloads – leaving themselves open to have their identities traced through credit card numbers – why would anyone pay to download warez when virtually everything is already available for free on P2P networks?
December 13th, 2004 at 11:15 pm
Why would anyone pay for warez when they could simply pay for the legitimate product.
Specifically with software, if youre going to pay you may as well shell out a little more for a product you can simply update without having to sneak around.
The main package is always available online, but its updates are few and far between.
December 14th, 2004 at 4:57 pm
“Why would anyone pay for warez when they could simply pay for the legitimate product.”
Perhaps, because things like M$ XP, photoshop, etc, are extremely expensive.
You might have bottomless pockets but the average joe schmo doesn’t.
Anyway, this story is way off the mark.
If you read ZP you’ll find out that this was a pay wareaz site ftpwelt.com. It was hated by the scene and taken down by a hacker who sent all the info to the gvu.