Bulgarian Torrent Tracking Sites Under Threat

Bulgarian Internet users are set to lose access to illegal downloads as the two biggest torrent tracker Bulgarian websites are threatened with a close-down. Photo by BGNES/ EPA

The two biggest torrent tracker Bulgarian websites, zamunda.net and arena.bg, will be closed down, said the head of Bulgaria's Computer Crimes Department, Yavor Kolev.

In a TV appearenace, Thursday, Kolev explained that the two biggest free Bulgarian torrents sites – zamunda.net and arena.bg – distrubute pirate files and are a rip-off for Internet users as they dupe them into sending sms messages.

“We'll clean the web space from Internet pirates and set up legal platforms for file downloads,” said Kolev Thursday, adding that he has nothing against Internet users downloading movie and music files from the net as long as that does not constitute an intellectual theft.

According to unconfirmed data, a Syrian citizen is the true owner of the Zamunda tracking site while a Russian controls arena.bg.

Kolev reminded that the legal cases that were launched more than 3 years ago against the two tracking websites over intellectual piracy charges have not concluded and that the accused are to stand trial.

In 2007 the Bulgarian law-enforcement agencies cracked down on the two torrent tracking websites. Arena.bg and zamund.net were then taken down, the owner of arena was arrested and there police raids on the offices of known torrent sites in the Sofia capital.

On Wednesday, following a statement made by the European Director of the International Recording Federation, Frances Moore, that Bulgaria ranks first in the EU by Internet piracy, the head of Bulgaria's Crime Department declared that the governemnet will go after the investors in Internet piracy rather than regular Internet users.

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