Music industry calls the site’s acception of donations a criminal "get rich quick scheme" – guess they’ve never heard of server fees and maintenance costs.
Today it was announced that Colombo-BT.org, the apparent largest BitTorrent tracker site in Italy, has been shut down by Italian police.
Colombo-BT.org is accused of making available more than 390,000 music and 500,000 movie files, including a number of pre-release titles. It had more than 400,000 registered users and 800,000 unique visitors each month.
The Guardia di Finanza undertook the action in cooperation with FPM, the Italian anti-music piracy group affiliated with the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
Colombo-BT.org was run by three Italian men who have now been charged with copyright infringement and face heavy fines and up to three years in prison.
An IFPI press release claims they were making money from accepting donations on the site, a claim similar to the one made against OiNK some time ago, but certainly fails to consider that server and site maintenance fees aren’t cheap and have to be paid by somebody.
It also refers to the site having a "Czech-based service provider" raising interesting questions about how the closure was coordinated and by whom. It says that the Italian Guardia di Finanza closed the service, seizing several computers and freezing two bank accounts, but doesn’t specify how if the site was hosted in Czechoslovakia.
Enzo Mazza, president of FPM, says: "Colombo-BT.org was Italy’s version of The Pirate Bay. Its operators deliberately facilitated availability of copyright infringing content to line their own pockets. The gang of three now face potential prison sentences and hefty fines as a result of their activities. This police action sends a strong message that Italy will not tolerate serious online music piracy so criminals looking for get rich quick schemes should consider other options."
It’s "version of The Pirate Bay?" That’s kind of a bold claim considering The Pirate Bay really belongs to the world.
Furthermore, are true criminals really looking to BitTorrent tracker sites as "get rich quick schemes?" I think not. It’s not exactly easy for one, and also not everybody donates cash. A true criminal that had the technical expertise to run a tracker site would most likely choose other options to get rich quick.
More importantly, when "profits" are made from funds donated by users and to which a portion must be spent on the costs associated with a service rendered to those same users is that really a crime? I think not.
The only crime is the way the IFPI and FPM claim to be fighting in the name of musicians whom they in fact tend to rob themselves.
Related
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- South African Music Industry Group Closes that Country’s Largest BitTorrent Site
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- Italian Appeals Court Explains Decision to Block the Pirate Bay
They are never gonna stop file sharers. There are web-based p2p services like FilesWire which work directly from the web and can be used on any internet connected computer. (workinternet cafeuni etc). So how are they going to pinpoint p2p activity if it is not even tied to your ip address.
Apparently it is going to take mercenary hit teams to get file sharing to stop like what just happened to magesy
I heard rumors that magesy was shut down in a very violent way (russian hit squad) they killed hundreds buildings blown up homes destroyed and there was a press blackout.
you think it is safe to keep on doing this what are you going to do when a hit team is in your home ??? call the police ????
I myself have stopped downloading after I heard about the violent tragic demise of magesy but they were asking for it asking for donations having advertisers not to mention billions of dollars of software available for downloading
they were just asking for it
if you were to steal 100 bucks from the military russian mob american mob they would cut off your hand right ???
who do you think owns these music labels software companies porn companies ?????
in some countries you go to prison like what just happened with some bit torrent guys other countries they blow up your village or your town
these are dangerous times my friends and file sharing is no longer a safe arena no matter what country you are in.
Hi everyone just a few comments from Italy:
1) Everybody is innocent until otherwise proven and proven beyond any legitimate doubt;
2) Colombo-bt administrators will be also helped by the efforts of the Italian p2p community; I have reasons to believe that Italian p2p community is strong enough to provide all necessary funds to cover legal expenses. Funds collecting has already started with transparency.
3) It’s true that the servers were hosted in the Czech Republic and they are still there as far as I know. The admins complied to an ordinance of an Italian magistrate who required to shut down the servers and to give all access key (passwords etc.) to the italian “Guardia di Finanza”. Obviously the admins have not been arrested.
4) At the moment I don’t know what the admins have been charged of probably this information will be made available at the right time and not before. In the official statements Guardia di Finanza declared that they arrived to identify the admins by tracking the small donations of the contributors of the site (to buy some new servers) but a well informed source reported that they arrived by tracking the payments made to the Czech provider.
5) All the contents tracked by the former Colombo tracker are not and will be not lost both through DHT and through other initiatives that italian sharers will soon discover after August holidays.
Kind regards.