14 DAY TRIAL // Romania is not the only country making efforts to please the European Union in order to adhere in 2007, Bulgaria is also starting the crackdown on those who violate copyrights.
According to Reuters, Bulgarian police charged two men on Saturday for illegally distributing music and films in what officials called one of Europe's largest Internet pirate groups.
Web site www.arenabg.com provided users with some 20 million songs and movies. Visitors could download as many files as they wanted for a monthly fee of $2.5.
Authorities estimate the damage to the entertainment industry at around $30 million, the news agency also informs.
Romania has also started the war against those who violate copyrights. The crackdown started in Iasi, in the northeastern region of Romania, where a team of law enforcers, led by a prosecutor, has started to hunt file-sharers.
They hook up to neighborhood filesharing networks and choose their 'victims' in a random manner.
Three have been voices saying that policemen are not allowed to break into the people's house, but every judge is forced to issue a search warrant, because the copyright violation falls under penal law.
The number of users turning to filesharing for their music and movies is huge, especially in Bucharest, which makes the apprehension of all perpetrators almost impossible.
But authorities are not pursuing this goal, Dan Ionita, an IT specialist within Romanian General Police Department, was quoted by the Gardianul Daily as saying that it takes only a few successful cases to make the phenomenon fade away.
RESURSE
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