FBI Helps Shut Down Piracy Sites In Romania

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.

Comments

Deinitely should read the first article

[Crashmarik]

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.

Re:Deinitely should read the first article

[KGIII]

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.

Not torrent sites

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Context:

[FlexPlexico]

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.