Australian ISP Raided in File Swap Hunt

[KiwiCoromandel]

Australian ISP Raided in File Swap Hunt

March 18, 2005 8:47PM

Australian recording industry investigators raided an Internet service provider on Thursday suspected of having used high-speed file-swapping technology to allow the pirating of hundreds of thousands of songs and video clips, an industry official said.

The raid was believed to be the first on an Australian Internet company involving popular BitTorrent file sharing software.

The investigators raided the headquarters of Swiftel Communications in Perth, the capital of Western Australia state, Music Industry Piracy Investigations said. MIPI is part of the Australian Record Industry Association.

"These raids are a new and important development in our fight against Internet music piracy," MIPI General Manager Michael Speck said.

BitTorrent is a software program that allows the downloading of large files from multiple sources at the same time, thereby speeding up the transfer. Users connect directly to each other, but there is a central that coordinates the transfers.

Speck accused Swiftel of using BitTorrent technology "to link infringers to music clips and sound recordings. We believe hundreds of thousands of downloads have been conducted during the last year in breach of copyright laws."

He said his investigators seized "digital evidence relating to Web pages and Internet transactions consisting of both illegal sound recordings and illegal video clips."

Swiftel Communications could not immediately be reached for comment.

The raids were conducted with rarely used search warrants known as Anton Piller orders, which are used exclusively in civil proceedings. No police were involved, and the record industry sent its own investigators to carry out the search and seize evidence.

Last year, Speck's organization used Anton Piller orders to raid offices and homes in Sydney linked to the Kazaa file-sharing network. The recording industry is involved in an ongoing civil trial against Kazaa that is expected to wind up later this month.

Lawyers for the recording industry say Kazaa's owners are allowing the network's millions of users to illegally exchange billions of copyrighted music files each month.

Kazaa's owners say they are not responsible for the actions of people using their software.

Speck said Thursday that among music videos found traded on Swiftel were "Kids" by Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue and "Sometime" by Britney Spears.

"The record industry will continue to take legal action to protect its copyright whether it's on the internet or elsewhere," Speck said. "We will continue to act against ISPs who we believe are set up as vehicles for piracy."

© 2005 Associated Press.

© 2005 Top Tech News.

[Malicious Intent]

The press is so crap. What are they saying? Was the ISP running a tracker? Were they hosting webpages for their customers? Did they give a warning? Or are they just blaming the ISP for not policing their customers on the net?

Does the guy who wrote this know what file sharing is?

[rainbowdemon]

Raiding an isp because it's subscribers share files is like raiding Ford if somebody uses a Thunderbird in a bank robbery.

[KiwiCoromandel]

The press is so crap. What are they saying? Was the ISP running a tracker? Were they hosting webpages for their customers? Did they give a warning? Or are they just blaming the ISP for not policing their customers on the net?

Does the guy who wrote this know what file sharing is?

i doubt that he does mate...rudolph murdoch is his employer...when they write articles like this they (the reporters) are writing murdoch policy which, if i`m not mistaken, is rabidly pro pay and anti free .....the 2 main aussie papers (sydney morning herald and the australian) are both very much pro market and pro business.......and they will go after anyone that gets in the way.....some of the jurnalists who work for these newspapers are absolutely venal and actually have no idea at all of what they are reporting on..they just write the crap that their bosses want them to..

[slum_goddess]

murdoch policy which, if i`m not mistaken, is rabidly pro pay and anti free

slightly related: we bought the 2nd and 3rd seasons of Millennium (TV show) from amazon.uk; last night we watched and were appalled to see the warning before each and every episode on the DVD (unlike the amerikan version where they force you to sit through it only at the beginning of the disk). chris wants to upload each ep to bit torrent--he is PISSED. so am i, especially cause the warning is for sloooowwwwww readers.

[Redneck4sure]

especially cause the warning is for sloooowwwwww readers.

You makin' fun of me now? Do you think rednecks never buy DVD's?? First Dude doggin' me cause I am dyslexic and now this! Another thing.....I am tired of you typing so fast cause you know I read slow and I am havin' a hard time keepin' up. :reallymad:

[slum_goddess]

i know it's hard to believe but i really wasn't thinking of youuuuuu-hooooooo. :) anyway, these are UK DVDs of amerikan shows, they wouldn't play at your house unless you have a multi-region DVD player. believe me, it's very annoying to sit there and see the same fuckin warning before each ep.

[Malicious Intent]

You can avoid those warnings by downloading it.