The Pirate Bay,
International Engine of Illegal File-Sharing, is Shut Down by Swedish
Police
Recording industry
welcomes crackdown on the
notorious BitTorrent search index
London, May 31, 2006
The international recording industry today hailed
action by the Swedish police to shut down The Pirate Bay, which claims
to be the world's largest BitTorrent search index and a huge source of
internet piracy globally.
Today's action saw raids by 50 police officers on 10
separate locations across Sweden. Police collected evidence and have
detained three individuals for questioning.
The Pirate Bay, available in 25 language versions, has
been large-scale engine of copyright theft of movies, music, audio
books, televisions broadcasts, games and software. The site boasted one
million visits a day, facilitating the downloading of a vast range of
copyrighted material by users around the world and acting as a tracker
for the world's top 100 BitTorrent sites.
The Pirate Bay has consistently defied legal warnings
by copyright holders over recent months, its Swedish operators making
no secret of their contempt for copyright laws. The site was
nonetheless a commercially-run operation, running banner advertising on
its pages.
Today's police actions followed the submission of
several reports by IFPI, working alongside the Swedish Anti-Piracy
Bureau and MPA.
IFPI Sweden Director-General Lars Gustafsson said:
"The Pirate Bay has been facilitating illegal file-swapping of
copyrighted material on very large scale and with blatant disregard for
both music creators and copyright laws. This is a very good development
for the Swedish music industry and for the real innovators and
entrepreneurs who are trying to build a legal online digital business"
Chairman and CEO John Kennedy said: "This is a very
important development for Sweden, a country with a fantastically rich
music culture yet which has more recently acquired a reputation as a
haven for copyright infringement. The Pirate Bay has damaged the
legitimate music industry on an international scale and I am very
pleased that the Swedish authorities have today taken such decisive
action against it."
Note to editors:
IFPI is the organization that promotes the interests
of the international recording industry worldwide. Its membership
comprises over 1400 major and independent companies in more than 70
countries. It also has affiliated industry national groups in 48
countries. IFPI's mission is to fight music piracy; promote fair market
access and good copyright laws; help develop the legal conditions and
the technologies for the recording industry to prosper in the digital
era; and to promote the value of music.
For further information please contact Adrian
Strain or Alex Jacob
+44 (0) 20 7878 7935, email: press-office@ifpi.org
