MPAA Shuts Down 29 BitTorrent and NZB Sites

The MPAA and their colleagues in The Netherlands appear to have shut down more than two dozen BitTorrent, Usenet and other file-sharing sites today. Accused of linking to movies, music, TV shows and games, the domains appear to be redirecting to the website of Dutch anti-piracy outfit, BREIN.http://torrentfreak.com//images/mpaa.jpgIn an operation carried out by the MPAA and Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN, 29 BitTorrent and Usenet indexing sites are believed to have been closed down.

The names of the sites, which appear to have been offering links to movies, music, TV shows, games and books, are currently unavailable but at least one appears to be identified as HD-UNiT3D.

As can be seen from its http://hd-united.com/ URL, it diverts straight to BREIN’s homepage.

“These are sites that routinely offer illegal access to someone else’s work,” said BREIN boss Tim Kuik in a statement.

“This year we have made over 600 of these sites inaccessible. Some seek refuge in a foreign or hosting provider. These 29 apparently thought that in America they could go undisturbed. That is incorrect.”

http://torrentfreak.com//images/breinhammer.jpg“Through cooperation with our foreign colleagues we can make sites in other countries inaccessible,” he added.

BREIN says it will also seek out the personal details of the those who operate the sites in order to hold them personally liable.

As mentioned in our earlier articles, BREIN has indeed closed down many torrent and Usenet related sites. However, while some of them have been reasonably sized, most of them are particularly small and easy to close by pressuring their hosts.

The MPAA are yet to make a statement on the action and as yet BREIN haven’t formally identified any of the sites targeted. If past actions are anything to go by, they will try to avoid naming them for fear of giving them even more publicity.

We will update this post as more information becomes available.

Article from: TorrentFreak.