В Греции администратора торрент-трекера приговорили к пяти годам тюрьмы

Legal Proceedings and Implications for Torrenting in Greece

The Piraeus Court of Appeals has upheld a five-year prison sentence for a 59-year-old Greek man who operated the notorious torrent tracker P2PLanet from 2011 to 2014. According to reports from TorrentFreak, the platform ceased operations in 2014 following a cyberattack and the subsequent arrest of its administrator.

In addition to the prison term, the court has mandated a fine of €10,000. The appellate court reaffirmed the initial ruling, dismissing the defendant’s appeal. Following the announcement of the verdict, the man was escorted to prison in handcuffs by three court officers.

P2PLanet, which utilized TorrentStrike software, boasted a user base of 44,342 at the time of its closure, with over 14,000 torrent files available for download and distribution. The majority of the content included films, television series, and music.

In 2014, the site fell victim to a series of significant DDoS attacks, leading to its eventual compromise. Data stolen from the server was leaked online, likely serving as a basis for the criminal prosecution of the administrator. This data confirmed that the suspect had access to the management tools of the torrent tracker.

In a related investigation, the Greek cybercrime unit conducted a raid on the suspect’s residence in 2014, during which a computer hard drive was seized. The domain name p2planet.net has remained inactive for the past decade.

The severity of the sentence has surprised many, as legal actions against torrent site operators in Greece are relatively rare. This ruling indicates a potential shift in the country’s law enforcement approach towards more stringent measures against online copyright violations.

In 2019, a Greek court set a legal precedent by sentencing a resident of Larissa to five years in prison for managing several pirate sites, including greekstars.net, greekstars.com, and greekstars.biz. This case involved a repeat offender who had previously faced charges for piracy.

The BitTorrent protocol allows users to simultaneously download and share content, effectively making them distributors of pirated materials. This poses risks for all participants in file-sharing networks. In Italy, since 2021, consumers of unlicensed content face fines of up to €25,000 or imprisonment.

Meanwhile, global trends indicate a gradual decline in the popularity of piracy. Research from MUSO, which has been analyzing pirate ecosystems since 2017, shows that visits to illegal sites are projected to drop to 216 billion in 2024, down from 229 billion the previous year. The most significant declines have been observed in the film and music sectors, suggesting a shift in consumer habits and the effectiveness of legal alternatives.

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В Греции администратора торрент-трекера приговорили к пяти годам тюрьмы