NEWS
06.06.08 Belgian topsite felled after raid
BRUSSELS – Simultaneous law enforcement operations in Belgium and the Netherlands have led to the seizure of a powerful computer server that was being used to upload copyright infringing music, games and films onto the internet.
Belgian federal judicial police are now investigating the server's links to the Catholic University of Leuven and the Vlekho School in Brussels. They have confiscated the server, which had a huge capacity of 4.5 terabytes, for forensic investigation.
Such fast and powerful servers are used to sustain "topsites", which are the primary source of copyright infringing music, games and films online. The files illegally uploaded on these "topsites" then spread across the internet through peer-to-peer networks, blogs, forums and website links.
The widespread availability of copyright-infringing music online has led to a situation where there are 20 illegal downloads for every legal digital music track sold. This has reduced income to record companies that typically invest up to 20 per cent of their revenues in discovering and nurturing new musical talent.
This operation was instigated by IFPI, which represents the recording industry worldwide, following investigations by its Internet Anti-Piracy Unit. Their attention had been drawn to the server after they traced it as the source of large volume of illegal downloads of music, games and films amounting to approximately 300 gigabytes a day.
IFPI alerted the Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA) to the problem since the range of IP addresses of the server was located in Belgium. BEA alerted the Belgian authorities to the problem in February 2008. The Brussels Computer Crime Unit subsequently traced the server to a datacentre in the Netherlands and alerted Dutch law enforcement to its presence.
