Edonkey file-sharing busts in Germany
Police in Germany have charged 3,500 users of a file-sharing network in the biggest single action against the illegal distribution of music online. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) – the record industry’s global body – said each could face five years in prison. They may also have to pay compensation for offering up to 8,000 files at a time for download on the eDonkey site. The investigation led to searches in 130 locations across Germany.
Each of these 3500 users could face five years in prison. They may also have to pay compensation for offering up to 8,000 files at a time for download on the eDonkey site (this compensation will be probably about several thousands of Euros). German website Heise.de informs about 40 000 IP addresses logged, from which were 3500 recognized as german and owners of these IPs were recognized and suited. IFPI announced that they created over 14 gigabytes of filesharers logs during last 2 weeks.
“I am pleased that the German authorities recognise the serious impact of copyright crime and are taking action against it,â€? said John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of IFPI. “Internet piracy has hurt the whole music community in Germany, with legitimate sales falling by a third in just five years. The victims are investment in music and everyone who makes a livelihood out of the music industry.”
This is another big hit into eDonkey community, not so long after the world biggest eDonkey fileserver, Razorback2, was closed down by french authorities. The amount of eDonkey users dropped rapidly after this action, more than 0.5 million of users stopped using eDonkey or found another alternative. The most popular filesharing solution, BitTorrent, remains (fortunately) without bigger attention for now…
Comments(12)
I would really like to see german prisons completely overextended trying to cope with an additional 3500 inmates… its completely insane, ridiculous and totally undoable. There just isn’t -NO- physical space to put so many prisoners at once. If all those charged would just refuse to pay the fines and instead decided to do time, I would really like to see german authorities simply letting them walk…. Its the single most important point no RIAA/associates managed to explain… there are MILLIONS of people file-sharing, and there just is NO WAY to imprision all of them. They never touch this point because they would them have to concede that its impossible to enact ANY law against so many people ANYWHERE in the world. All countries suffer from prison crowding, and there are far worse criminals waiting to get in… Bin Laden anyone?
“…said John Kennedy”
Where´s lee harvey oswald when you need him…
Never used Edonkey, but I cringe at the prospect of harrasing ANY downloading medium. I’m positive the RIAA had a major hand in this. In the grand scheme of things, 3500 out of MILLIONS of downloaders is not even 1%, but I’m sure this was done as an example to others. The powers that be one day will realize that you can NEVER stop downloading or the technology that drives it, people will just go underground and become more knowledgeable about how to get around the snakes in the industry. Actually going after people like this has the oposite
effects. Like when they closed the original Napster, most people became smarter and actually started using BETTER and MORE SECURE methods of download the content, thus downloading MORE.
What the hell are you talking about concernedcitizen, Bin Laden isn’t behind shit. It’s our stupid ass government that’s corrupted the media to think that these Arabs are behind the terrorist attacks. I challenge you to watch a documentary on 9/11 and how our own government is behind the attacks. It wasn’t Al Qaeda or Bin Laden that attacked the US. The US Government attacked the US.
Loose Change 2nd Edition
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8260059923762628848
I agree with the previous post! Its the united states goverment who attacked the US! And Bush, oh my…..
I am in complete agreement!!
Har de har har, it’s just adorable the way some people are convinced there’s conspiracies left and right because some guy on the internet told them so. Or worse, by watching Michael Moore films.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand: The authorities should be doing something better with their time. “I’d like to find and punish your rapist, young Sally, but there’s just so many damn people downloading MP3s at the moment…”
Who uses eDonkey anyway, it’s crap
.
omg imagine a donkey on e =o!
teheh munted donkey :p
“Internet piracy has hurt the whole music community in Germany, with legitimate sales falling by a third in just five years. The victims are investment in music and everyone who makes a livelihood out of the music industry.”
Why don’t they just go out and see how much cars, for example, are being stolen every day? Unfortunately, the victims are casual people, not some VIPs, so they just don’t give a fuck…
concernedcitizen: yes… f**k the police… there are million if not 10s of millions of us… the people who do warez all the time… you cant imprison us all… i have done warez since 1983… i am not scared… copyrights are even more unenforcable than alcohol prohibition was… we shall be victorious over the forces of mpaa, riaa , bsa and fbi… long live the scene! and all you leeches!
I sometimes visit your blog and read articles.
Recently I checked CNET download.com and found ‘Windows P2P Extension Pack’.
This type of p2p program will apprear more and more and eventually RIAA will surrender sooner or later…
NOW YOUR Windows Explorer is your file sharing application!,
What else would you need more?
This is the future of P2P application for Windows users!