{"id":6940,"date":"2023-10-18T01:36:12","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T23:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toukiela.com\/piratage-massif-les-operateurs-dun-site-torrent-condamnes-a-payer-une-somme-record-de-489-millions-deuros-en-dommages-et-interets\/"},"modified":"2023-10-18T01:36:13","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T23:36:13","slug":"piratage-massif-les-operateurs-dun-site-torrent-condamnes-a-payer-une-somme-record-de-489-millions-deuros-en-dommages-et-interets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toukiela.com\/en\/piracy-massive-the-operators-of-a-torrent-site-are-condemned-to-pay-a-record-sum-of-489-million-euros-in-damages-and-interests\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive piracy: torrent site operators ordered to pay a record 489 million euros in damages!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-69f1f10f430b1\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseprofile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-69f1f10f430b1\"  aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/toukiela.com\/en\/piracy-massive-the-operators-of-a-torrent-site-are-condemned-to-pay-a-record-sum-of-489-million-euros-in-damages-and-interests\/#Deux_personnes_condamnees_pour_leur_implication_dans_T411_le_site_de_torrents_le_plus_visite_de_France\" >Two people sentenced for their involvement in T411, France's most visited torrent site<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/toukiela.com\/en\/piracy-massive-the-operators-of-a-torrent-site-are-condemned-to-pay-a-record-sum-of-489-million-euros-in-damages-and-interests\/#Trois_ans_de_prison_et_des_dommages-interets_massifs\" >Three years in prison and massive damages<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/toukiela.com\/en\/piracy-massive-the-operators-of-a-torrent-site-are-condemned-to-pay-a-record-sum-of-489-million-euros-in-damages-and-interests\/#18_mois_de_prison_pour_ladministrateur_systeme_ukrainien\" >Ukrainian system administrator jailed for 18 months<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/toukiela.com\/en\/piracy-massive-the-operators-of-a-torrent-site-are-condemned-to-pay-a-record-sum-of-489-million-euros-in-damages-and-interests\/#Peines_modestes_pour_les_moderateurs\" >Moderate penalties for moderators<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Deux_personnes_condamnees_pour_leur_implication_dans_T411_le_site_de_torrents_le_plus_visite_de_France\"><\/span>Two people sentenced for their involvement in T411, France's most visited torrent site<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In the summer of 2017, French law enforcement pulled off a major coup by shutting down T411, a popular semi-private torrent tracker with over five million registered members.<\/p>\n<p>The site, aimed at a French-speaking audience, had been in the sights of rights holders for some time. After several attempts to avoid legal action, the curtain finally came down.<\/p>\n<p>Following the announcement of the site's collapse, it became clear that not everyone involved in its operation was French. The main suspect was based in Canada, and the system administrator was Ukrainian. Several French suspects were also identified, but they were mainly considered to be moderators.<\/p>\n<p>Today, more than six years after T411's closure, L'Informe reports that the Rennes Criminal Court has sentenced the two main suspects to prison terms and unprecedented damages, amounting to almost a quarter of a billion euros.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Trois_ans_de_prison_et_des_dommages-interets_massifs\"><\/span>Three years in prison and massive damages<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In a landmark ruling, the court ordered the Canadian creator of the torrent site, Mr. Jolicoeur, to serve a three-year prison sentence and pay a fine of 150,000 euros ($158,000). The defendant was not present in court, and an arrest warrant was issued, which the Canadian authorities will have to execute.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the court awarded an unprecedented 489 million euros ($516 million) in damages to the rights holders. This is the largest amount of damages ever awarded to operators of pirate sites. By comparison, the founders of The Pirate Bay had to pay damages of less than seven million euros.<\/p>\n<p>The amount of this case appears to be based on the total number of downloads that could be traced back to the site. The prosecution counted over 190,000 torrents, which generated over 270 million downloads in various categories.<\/p>\n<p>Films and TV series were by far the most popular, which explains why the lion's share of the damages - 471 million euros - went to companies in the film industry, including Warner, Path\u00e9, Gaumont, UGC and Film24. The remaining 18 million euros will go to the French music group SACEM.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"18_mois_de_prison_pour_ladministrateur_systeme_ukrainien\"><\/span>Ukrainian system administrator jailed for 18 months<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In addition to the main suspect, the court also convicted T411's system administrator, Mr. R.V., who has already shared his version of events with us.<\/p>\n<p>R.V., who now lives in Sweden, was present at the hearings and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, 13 of which were suspended. The director has already served this sentence in pre-trial detention and remains free.<\/p>\n<p>The court also held the system administrator liable for 30 % of the compensation, or over 146 million euros in total. This is practically a life sentence in financial terms, which is a huge disappointment.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with us, R.V. declares that he will appeal the judgment. He describes the amount of damages as abnormal, and adds with a touch of irony that he would be better off resigning from his job if it is upheld.<\/p>\n<p>\"I'm not going to pay, but even if I'm forced to, I'll quit my job and live off social benefits for the unemployed. Otherwise, I'll have to work for 3,500 years to pay such a fine,\" says R.V.<\/p>\n<p>R.V. also points out that the defense did not have the opportunity to contest the calculation of the amount of damages, which will probably be raised on appeal.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Peines_modestes_pour_les_moderateurs\"><\/span>Moderate penalties for moderators<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In addition to the site's founder and system administrator, the court also sentenced several French T411 moderators. The five defendants must each pay 250 euros to all the rights holders mentioned.<\/p>\n<p>L'Informe reports that authorities began investigating the site in 2015. They were eventually able to identify the suspects by cross-checking their PayPal accounts, IP addresses and bank details.<\/p>\n<p>For rights holders and French law enforcement agencies, these convictions are a great victory, but their work is not yet done. Shortly after T411's closure, YggTorrent took its place and, despite several attempts to shut it down, the site is still online today.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[586],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actu-tech","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toukiela.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toukiela.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toukiela.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toukiela.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toukiela.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/toukiela.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6941,"href":"https:\/\/toukiela.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6940\/revisions\/6941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toukiela.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toukiela.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toukiela.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toukiela.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}