Popular private music tracker What.cd went offline a couple weeks ago seemingly out of the blue, after French Gendarmerie targeted some of its infrastructure at hosting provider. Then French police went further and targeted Zone-Telechargement, the largest pirate portal in the country and 11th most-visited website in Europe. That resource went down as well, closely followed by affiliated DDL site, DL-Protect.



These moves were initiated by SACEM (the Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music), which collects and distributes royalties to its members, at the same time protecting their copyrights. The group claimed that it was just a beginning, and the takedowns were the result of a long process and meticulous work.

It turned out that the investigation into the 2m direct download link Zone-Telechargement started 2 years ago, when SACEM and ALPA (French Association for the Fight against Piracy) filed a complaint against the site. They had to identify accounts, assets, servers and advertising agencies, all done through large investigations. They found out that there were many advertisements on the website, often pornographic. The site generated at least 1.5m euros in sales annually, and its offshore accounts were located in Malta, Cyprus and Belize. The copyright owners claimed damages of more than 75m euros, and 7 people associated with Zone-Telechargement were arrested in France and Andorra as part of “Operation Gervais”. Luxury cars, real estate, and savings accounts were seized in Andorra, where two 24-year-olds were arrested.

French police confirmed the seizure of 450,000 euros and 2 cars, while Andorra confirmed freezing of 250,000 euros across several accounts. Now the police are looking at a case of counterfeiting for profit on a large scale. Moreover, the operation spread further afield – servers were also seized in Germany and Iceland.

Of course, the events were very unpopular with users, but the copyright owners asked them to consider how creators are to earn a living in the face of piracy. Besides, they suggested that they’re only chasing the bigger fish.

Thanks to TorrentFreak for providing the source of the article.