TorrentValley BitTorrent Tracker Site Shutdown by Bulgarian Authorities

Cyber Crimes Unit acts on evidence collected by the Bulgarian Association of Music Producers (BAMP).

Authorities in Bulgaria have taken down Torrentvalley.com, an apparently major BitTorrent tracker site located in that country.

The action was taken by the Cyber Crime Unit of the Ministry of Interior’s serious and organized crime directorate, acting on evidence from the Bulgarian Association of Music Producers (BAMP), which represents the music industry in Bulgaria.

Officers from the Cyber Crime Unit raided TorrentValley’s servers a few days ago on November 11th and shut the site down. It was estimated to have aided the distribution of more than one million files copyrighted files.

The operators of the service are now being investigated under article 172a of the Bulgarian penal code.

Ina Kileva, executive director of BAMP, says: "TorrentValley was a major international source of copyright infringing material. This site was a gate towards more than 5 000 torrent-trackers from all over the world. The decisive action by the authorities shows that Bulgaria is no haven for copyright abuse in Internet and makes efforts to protect the rights of those involved in the creative industries."

Too bad the effort is meaningless considering that two or more BitTorent tracker sites are certain to appear in its place not to mention the fact that tens of thousands of alternatives already exist.

jared@zeropaid.com