Bulgarian authority has shut down TorrentValley which has been considered as one of the biggest and most popular among BitTorrent sites worldwide.
Cyber Crime Unit (CCU), a government entity which overlooks digital media contents in the Internet, has raided the site’s office and ordered the immediate shut down of the company due to its alleged copyright infringement.
The music industry and producers have collected evidences against the BitTorrent site’s alleged illegal distribution of copyrighted materials including music albums.
Apart from music contents, the site also offered video games, eBook, movies, TV shows, software, anime, and photos.
Bulgarian Association of Musical Producers (BAMP) has expressed its relief that the site has been shut down, adding that Internet-based piracy has resulted to millions of dollars of revenue loss by music producers and artists.
Last year, OiNK which is also a popular BitTorrent site, has been shut down by the British and Bulgarian authorities, charging the administrator of the site with illegal operation and criminal network.
In 2006, Bulgarian authorities had shut down Arenabg.com which is the largest BitTorrent tracker and arrested its administrator who was later released due to lack of evidence.
While there are many small BitTorrent sites in the Internet nowadays, only those major players are the ones who get attention from the authorities. According to a report, OiNK has over 180,000 active members at the time this site was raided and shut down.
In addition to this event, isoHunt which is also a popular BitTorrent site is now facing criminal cases filed by Canadian Recording Industry (CRIA) over the alleged copyright infringement.