Anti-Piracy Group Helps Nab 'Major Pirate'

Anti-piracy group Antipiratbyrån claim to have helped police arrest a man it claims to be a "major player" in the "warez scene." The man, who is "around 30 years old," was arrested in the small Swedish city of Gävle by local police and agents from Sweden’s anti-piracy unit.

APB’s Henrik Pontén made the announcement yesterday, adding that his organization played a pivotal role in bringing this man in to custody. The police used information collected by the group to bring the man down, though what his name is remains a mystery.

"He is one of the elite pirates," Pontén said. "It is good that the police have a broad focus in their work and can act against the advanced and illegal sources of BitTorrent users."

"It was a major crackdown," said Paul Pintér, Coordinator at the Intellectual Property Crime Department at Stockholm police.

Frederick Ingblad from the Gävle Prosecutors Office said that the early allegations against the defendant were "strengthened" when authorities examined his seized computer property. What did they find on those computers? According to Pintér, thousands of movies:

"There were nearly 7000 films stored," Ingblad said. "In this case the offense involves so many movies that conviction could result in a prison sentence."

The man has denied the allegations made against him. Another unconfirmed rumor is that the man ran ATHF, which hosts an estimated 8,300 movies, TV shows and games. Access to the servers is exclusive; only 100 people have access to it.

Source: TorrentFreak