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FBI Helps Shut Down Piracy Sites In Romania

Posted by samzenpus on from the shut-it-down dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The FBI has taken a major role in the shutting down of at least two popular piracy-torrent sites in Romania, according to a report from Romania's High Court of Cassation and Justice. The popular torrenting domains serialepenet.ro and fisierulmeu.ro are now offline after a series of raids on individuals and companies, including a hosting company in Bucharest thought to have some involvement with the pirate operation.

13 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. Thank you FBI! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Once again the world is safe!

  2. Deinitely should read the first article by Crashmarik · · Score: 5, Insightful

    FBI programs in Romania have spent more than $4.6mn [PDF] (£2.9mn) in interdepartmental programs and initiatives with Romania-based authorities since 2007, which costs include the placement of an agent within the country’s Organised Crime Directorate – an organization within the Romanian police force – and additional personnel at the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI) centre, an investment amounting to $3.4mn (£2.1mn).

    Looks like 8 million in tax dollars or additional debt spent on this program. I wonder if they have any numbers on the return on investment defending hollywood's interests overseas.

    1. Re:Deinitely should read the first article by KGIII · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I can say, with some certainty, that shutting these sites down has accomplished nothing. The files are still there and three clicks later you have now set a new torrent up at TPB or another torrent site. I do not mind paying taxes (I do avoid them, as is my obligation - I donate to causes I prefer instead) but I do mind when my taxes are misspent.

      Taxes are not like a gift. If you gift something they can give it away or do anything they want with it - you gave it to them and it is now their property. Taxes are paying for services, services that will benefit the taxed and citizens at large. This has done absolutely nothing to assist, promote, or further the American taxpayer. There is no excuse, there is no acceptable level, this is just wrong.

      I hate to play this card but, really, how many people would that money have fed, housed, treated medically, educated, or heated in the cold of night? How far could NASA have gone with this? CERN? DARPA? Securing our boarders? Gift and install free solar panels? I do not care... At least the money would have, ostensibly, been kept here, where it belongs, where it benefits the taxpayer.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    2. Re:Deinitely should read the first article by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well, Hollywood is getting a great ROI.

      Look, American law enforcement has become an enforcement arm for copyright and defending business interests.

      DHS is now responsible for monitoring for copyright infringement, and the customs agents are responsible for doing search and seizure.

      They're doing their job ... defending the oligarchy they now work for.

      If you haven't been paying attention to the fact that the US government is literally doing IP enforcement on behalf of the copyright cartel, you've not been paying attention.

      Hell, US foreign policy/trade policy is both written by, and in the service of, the copyright cartel.

      Don't you know the US government works for multinational corporations now to ensure maximizing corporate profits?

      I really wish I was joking, but I'm not.

      This is hardly the first time US agencies have expended lots of resources to protect copyright ... Kim.com for instance. It sure as hell won't be the last.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  3. So wait... by silentcoder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Since when does the FBI have jurisdiction over citizens of Romania ?

    --
    Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    1. Re:So wait... by nospam007 · · Score: 2

      "Since when does the FBI have jurisdiction over citizens of Romania ?"

      Since when are pirates and parrots in Romania?

    2. Re: So wait... by silentcoder · · Score: 2

      You must be new here...

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    3. Re:So wait... by tshawkins · · Score: 2

      China... big fat middle finger straight up in the air.........

    4. Re:So wait... by Feral+Nerd · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Since when does the FBI have jurisdiction over citizens of Romania ?

      Where in the summary or the news piece does it say they have jurisdiction in Romania? The original article even quotes Romanian prosecutors statement that this was a cooperative investigation. There is nothing that prevents the FBI from helping out the Romanian authorities by providing the intel and expertise needed to shut down these sites except the refusal of the Romanian authorities to accept FBI assistance. The FBI, DEA, Scotland Yard, Germany's BKA, France's Police Nationale and many other law enforcement agencies all participate in operations abroad and provide assistance to law enforcement in other countries. If you are going to chew out the FBI for cracking down on software pirates at least RTFA please feel free to exercise your 1st amendment right to do so, just try to find a more potent argument than that the FBI is engaging in the mundane every day task of *SHOCK/AWE*-cross border law enforcement cooperation!!

  4. Not torrent sites by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    serialepenet.ro was a streaming site and fisierulmeu.ro was a file sharing site (similar to rapidshare, mega, etc). Neither of those of are torrent sites. The major torrent trackers in Romania are doing bussines as usual.

  5. Context: by FlexPlexico · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This doesn't strike me as a massive crackdown, but it may pave the way for future actions. "serialepenet.ro" looked like a very dodgy attempt to set up an incredibly illegal pay-per-view online system for pirated material. I feel like it's the sort of thing that would be taken down instantly if it had been set up anywhere else than the backwoods of Eastern Europe. Plus, "fisierulmeu.ro" was likely just a free file hosting site that became popular for sharing pirated media (much like the defunct megaupload).

    The cynical view would be that this just an attempt to kill off competitors in preparation for launching a similar service. Something very similar happened a few years ago, when they took down the massively popular "vplay.ro" (essentially a free youtube clone that featured all the popular TV shows). Only a few days later, one of the local media moguls launched his own site "voyo.ro" providing the same things vplay had before, only now requiring a monthly subscription.

    Meanwhile, private torrent tracker "filelist.ro" is still alive and kicking, and it's gotten so immensely popular everyone's grandma and their dog have an account for it. This action will affect the most PC-illiterate pirates, but won't likely make a dent in overall piracy.

  6. New Guantanamo Bay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    In the early 90's all Romanians were really happy to hear that the USA opened a military base on the Black Sea.
    They were happy because the Russians stopped yapping about Romania joining the "Commonwealth of Independent States", that is the former USSR.
    Now that base is on the main secret prisons mean to replace Guantanamo Bay.
    Really good job there.

    No surprise the FBI is so active in the country.

  7. Living in Romania, I would gladly pay for content by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I live in Romania and have used lots of pirating sites out of necessity, not out of unwillingness to pay for content. Romania has only a handful of internet content providers, HBO Go being one of the first (I'm a subscriber). We don't have Netflix, Amazon Prime is a pipedream, Google just recently opened up their ebooks and music store for the Romanian market (I'm already a subscriber for the music bit), but their movies store is still inaccessible here. There are some local online stores affiliated to local TV stations (SeeNow, Antena Play come to mind), but the quality is just as low as the TV stations sponsoring them. HBO Go at least has a reputation (even though they keep their offerings online for too short a time, and their mobile/tablet app severely lags behind the western counterpart in terms of stability and features -- e.g. chromecast support only recently added)

    I have no problem with law enforcement trying to put pressure on the pirate sites as long as I can get SOME decent content that I can pay a decent fee for. My problem is, the US should try to convince their media companies to open their offerings to Eastern European markets at the same time (or before) they pressure law enforcement to stop pirates that fill in the content void.