Anti-piracy efforts have carried on around the world in 2011 despite questions and concerns raised about just how successful domain seizures, warning letters and fines really are in curtailing criminal enterprises. A new crackdown supported by several European countries this week has succeeded in closing a popular movie portal called "Kino.to" and saw several key backers apprehended by law enforcement officers during raids on homes and businesses.
Torrent Freak reported on the story, noticing a new message at kino.to in stark contrast to its usual bevy of illicit links:
The domain of the site you are trying to access was closed on suspicion of forming a criminal organization to commit professional copyright infringement.
Several operators of KINO.TO were arrested.
Internet users who illegally pirated or distributed copies of films may be subjected to a criminal prosecution.
Our own URL check turned up a more generic message: "The computers that run kino.to are having some trouble. Usually this is just a temporary problem, so you might want to try again in a few minutes." However, according to a report from the German Federation Against Copyright Theft (GVU), it's fairly clear the site won't be returning any time soon.
The raids conducted in Spain, Germany, France and The Netherlands helped nab 13 suspects, said the group. An additional suspect is still on the loose. Reports suggest kino.to was an immensely popular site, especially in Germany.
May was a particularly busy month for anti-piracy operations: French movie-sharing site Liberty Land was closed after the three men operating it were arrested by police; a Danish man and member of Sweden's infamous Pirate Bay was fined over $30,000 in May for uploading a film to the site; and in the U.S. more than 24,000 people were sued for illegally downloading the Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker." June looks like it could end up just as noteworthy.
