BVMI, a German organisation representing the music industry, has been able to shut down three large Bittorrent trackers. The Hamburg Regional Court also issued an injunction ordering the webhosting company of the torrent sites to hand over names of the website owners.
Previously the webhoster took down the sites PublicBittorrent.com and istole.it after the torrent site operaters passed a deadline to remove copyrighted material from their site. Also the tracker OpenBittorrent has been taken down on request of the BVMI.
The three sites were shut down earlier this year and were regarded as being amongst the largest Bittorrent trackers. Trackers coordinate file sharing in the BitTorrent network. While the music industry previously mainly focussed on trying to shut down torrent index sites like The PirateBay, the BVMI has stated it will also extend its focus to Bittorrent trackers. The organisation argues that without trackers it will be harder for downloaders and uploaders to connect.
The rights holder - represented by law firm Rasch - informed the webhoster about the copyright infringement. The web hosting company then asked the affected customers to stop transferring certain files. This is easily possible with a blacklist containing hashtags of certain torrents, according to the law firm. After the torrent site owners didn't respond to the deadline set by the hoster, the sites were taken down
The BVMI wants to take action against the torrent site owners and has obtained a temporary injunction against the webhoster. The Hamburg Regional Court has instructed the unnamed company to disclose the names the people behind the site. The webhoster has already disclosed the names, the BVMI said in a statement.
The site operator is now threatened with civil claims of the rights holders and a trial.
