UNITED STATES: Revenge of the FBI

In possible signs of a renewed attack on file sharing, on May 25 FBI agents simultaneously executed 10 search warrants across nine states to shut down Elitetorrents.org, a free members-only BitTorrent aggregate site hosted in the Netherlands. Visitors to the site are now redirected to a humourless warning about the evils of internet piracy. BitTorrent technology allows users to easily swap and share files, including movies and music that may be copyrighted. The FBI is claiming that the hit film Revenge of the Sith was available on Elitetorrents more than six hours before it hit the theatres, and was downloaded more than 100,000 times in the first 24 hours. The FBI arrested several people, who they claim were site administrators and responsible for uploading copyrighted material to the network. "We're talking in the tens of terabytes", customs agent Jim Sevel told the media. The FBI has warned it may target casual downloaders further in the investigation.

From Green Left Weekly, June 1, 2005.

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From GLW issue 628