Bulgarian police appear to crack down on pirates

UNDER PRESSURE from the EU to sort out wide spread piracy in Bulgaria, Inspector Knacker of the Sofia Yard has swooped on one of the more obvious targets.

The website Arenabg.com which has been one of the main retailers of pirated music and movies was 'investigated' and the site administer known by the nickname 'Payforfree' and the system administrator 'CSDemo' have been arrested.

Databg has been running for years and charges a small joining fee for unlimited downloads. The outfit was so mainstream that they had arrangements with some cable companies to supply bittorrent movies to their punters.

The arrests have been trumpeted in the foreign media as an example of a "poor company fighting back against the pirates". The site is still running, although it is not clear if anyone is getting any downloads off it and the shut down is seen as pretty much token effort in Bulgaria.

Ironically it was carried out by Bulgaria's Organised Crime Unit, a division of the police which seems to have stepped out of its remit of not arresting the country's major mafia villains. This crack-down did not include some bigger sites, which most people in Bulgaria know about.

Nor did it include the retailers who fairly obviously peddle pirated CDs and DVDs to tourists in the town centre. But then again, maybe they have slipped the right people the right amount of cash.

More here. µ