14 DAY TRIAL // After French music torrent tracker What.cd was shut down following a police raid a few weeks ago, two other piracy websites in the country go offline due to an investigation that ended up with several people arrested and expensive goods, such as cars, seized.
French site Zataz is reporting that Zone-Telechargement, which was the top piracy websites in the country, went offline on Monday after being targeted by the French Gendarmerie in a series of raids. Furthermore, DL-Protect had the same fate, and the source speculates that the same people were involved in managing both websites.
The two download portals offered access to a wide variety of pirated content, including movies, games, and music, and it appears that they generated no less than 10 million euros in revenue to their administrators.
Zataz explains that the raids were conducted by French police with help from Andorran authorities, and a total of seven people who are believed to be involved in managing the websites were arrested. One of the administrators lived in Andorra.
75 million euro in damages
French newspaper Le Monde reveals that Zone-Telechargement recorded no less than 3.7 million downloads every month and it was visited every day by 11000 users from all over the world. The site is no longer accessible right now and there is no message regarding the shutdown.
The French police, however, took to Twitter to confirm the raids, explaining that the website caused damages worth no less than 75 million euros to the media industry.
It remains to be seen if any of the two websites can return online in the coming months, but what it’s worth knowing is that the police also sized several computers, cars, and Bitcoin wallets, and investigators are planning to closely analyze the evidence.
More arrests could take place in the future, but there’s a big chance that users are safe for the time being, as the investigation is mostly aimed at those who operated the two websites.