- Saturday, 21 November 2009
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War settles nothing. To win a war is as disastrous as to lose one - Agatha Christie
French military closes Bit Torrent site
THE FRENCH MILITARY moved to close down a large Bit Torrent tracker in what is the first recorded use of a nation's armed forces under the control of the entertainment industry.
It seems that the French government used taxpayer funded military personnel to gather information in order to shut down the Snowtigers site.
According to Torrentfreak, French police arrested 10 members of the site's staff and seized more than 20 servers after the military assisted in locating them.
A representative of the French anti-piracy organisation ALPA confirmed that it had "worked very closely with the military" to locate the semi-private site.
ALPA president Frédéric Delacroix managed to convince the military that SnowTigers was a criminal organisation and therefore the use of spy technology in the hands of the military was warrented to shut it down.
To make matters worse, it appears that those who donated money to the site could also expect to be dragged off into police custody.
Delacroix claimed that all people who have paid money to the site can now be questioned. Apparently the French government investigation has also been extended beyond the borders of the Republic.
It appears that it will only be a matter of time before the French government turns over its nuclear deterrent to copyright holders in a bid bring the Scandinavian countries as well as Russia and China back into line. µ
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You're looking kinda cool, France.
Should have seen this coming for a mile way, Nicolas Sarkozy is a fu*ken nut!
The domain torrentfreak.com is worth $ 398.625,00 according to websiteaccountant.com! :D
http://www.websiteaccountant.com/index.php?url=http://torrentfreak.com
When will other pirate parties emerge in other countries than sweden?
Rather than defend itself against the emerging Islamofascist threat, the cheese-munching surrender monkeys would rather police the internet. Certainly easier, as you don't have to get out of your chair or stop munching donuts.
It's been a while since I've been proud about France, but certainly standing up for what's right at the 'sacrifice of freedom' is an act to be commended. What do you think the word Freedom means? Is it the right to do whatever you so desire? I think it's the ability to do good and not fear consequences. What do you think the people who fought and died for freedom would say when a bunch of punks get all snotty noised over not being allowed to download xyz… I think they’d say get a life.
For their early surrender to Hitler in WWII. Now they surrendered to MAFIAA... Surrender is a word french military is well acquainted for. They are so fearful that they need to make a military operation to arrest a couple of geeks. Lame...
Rich, I find your post offensive! French military do not eat Donughts, they eat Beignets as they read "The art of Surrendering"
I think it's great that countries are finally waking up to the possibility of using the military against their own citizens. With robot-warfare on the rise, those idle hands need to be put to work somewhere.
Hopefully we'll see more military in the streets at the next G20 summit or whatever. Hillbilly cops aren't equipped to handle extremo-fascist demonstrators armed with rocks and molotovs. However, rubber bullets and tear gas in the hands of our capable soldiers will make light work of these freedom-hating, antagonistic nutjobs. (it's worked so well in the past too, at least regarding France)
We will get this in the USA, a new Internet Czar created by the new messiah will get those pesky conservative sites. They will all be brought down who oppose his god like rule and sent off to education camps for liberal indoctrination.
How does did the French Army's standard issue white handkerchief on telescopic stick qualify them for IT hardware removal?
Did they dust it?
This is according to the age old french military traditions.
French are badasses when fighting unarmed men, women and children.
They scored a huge victory against themselves! Good thing I don't live anywhere near France and that this idiocy is less contagious than the swine flu.
Louie, I apologize, you are correct. Cheese-munching surrender monkeys devour beignets, not doughnuts.
Regulas, I hope the Arointed One and his Marxist cronies are prepared to put damn near the whole country in jail.... Wait, of COURSE they are! Well, they won't get me without a fight.
And yes, itis Arointed, as in "Go aroint yourself!"
Have you heard from HADOPI & LOPPSI ?
French networks are over, welcome 1984 !
Sorry but not all french people have decided to vote these laws (only the HADOPI one is for now).
This week a woman was questionned by policemen cause she had commented a politic video on dailymotion "houuu the lier !".
Don't blame us it seems to be the world's turn nearly ;)
[hope i'll won't bearrested after this one]
Stomping down doors @ yer local geeks exchanges. I see a big market for the control freaks. My emigration papers to move outside the EU are ready; are yours too ?
Nah... most ppl just sit, wait and see, like sitting inside a burning building hoping the fire won't reach them.
Well, yes of course there is a fire in the Theater, no really.
France is becoming the new police state!!
Motherfuckers........
Not so long ago French students would have set fire to half of Paris for an issue affecting their freedom. So come on then, put down the bloody keyboards and light-up. On y va!
was a term I first heard when France refused to participate in the illegal invasion and subsequent illegal occupation of Iraq.
That was pretty stupid on their part, eh. They probably don't spirit away civilians and children and torture them to death either. What an ignorant bunch.
Compare torture executions as practiced by the u.s and u.k. to shutting down a torrent site. Now what was that again about fascism and repression? Let's have a little context, shall we?
re: "a new Internet Czar created by the new messiah will get those pesky conservative sites"
-------
yes, tearing apart our u.s.a. constitutional rights which were well-defended by the patriot[sic] act of the conservative neo-cons... and there's a lick of difference between the r's and d's... and bldg 7 free-fell 'cause it was hit by a plane and burned the steel columns...
I guess their military has nothing better to do than arrest civilians, as it generally does nothing in the world.
Hey the brits, are you really that stupid as to think that all the French people are that stupid? Don't you realise that there is a difference between government and the people?
I'm just saying this because I DO realise that not all of you are stupid backers of your nice little war in Irak... So please try to refrain yourself talking about liberty etc. when you are just messing around in the world...
An assiduous French reader, just a bit fed up with dumb commenters ;)
Oh and BB, at least we try not to go and bother too many people with our army... Are you conscious of the harm that your military is doing to Britain's image in a large portion of the world?
AHAHAH, please remind me who is leading the way in video surveillance in the world???
Nice job danny!
Nice to see the world's militaries running errands for Hollywood.
Maybe tomorrow we will be arrested for wishing to receive and education. =)
Did you know that the world spends $3,287,671,232.00 on their militaries per day; enough money to send 547,945 students to a university for one year?
Keep up the bullshit guys! You're doing great!
Come on INQ, we're used to better journalism. The Gendarmerie was used for this operation. We all, French people, know that is not army even though it under ministry of Defence control. Gendarmerie is a police force and specially in countryside part of France.
We all known that Sarkozy is a short term stupid with no other vision than pleasing the rich and wealthy. This dwarf is accomplishing the British dream: Destroying France and ruining our social system. Now, with the hunt for PtoP, he is helping terrorist, criminal and pedophile to use crypted communication and to be much harder to caught...
France is over, thanks to Sarkoleon the 1st....
It was the the US that armstronged the whole world in the first place. But as history comes to be the french usually surrender first. Make love and not fight correct? Anywho i'm willing to bet 10 others private sites will spring up to take its place. I'm willing to bet if you ask everyone in either country "do a mass pole as such and exclude almost noone" Would they like their father/mother or son to be arrested and fined a huge lump sum for burning a music cd of george jones for either of them, they would in majority say no. But on a side note to a commit above....so set shits a fire guys! Comeon....!!!!
...so, Britain isnt even the No.1 police state in Western Europe anyomore :(
Then the proporgandists have won.
The Pyrrhic forces attempt to talk the hind legs off a donkey, save for the timely intervention of a wounded elephant that causes panic among the others. The elephants sneeze and fall to their knees, say a flea to a fly in a flue. Say the flea "Oh what shall we do?" Say the fly, "Let us flee!";
say the flea, "Let us fly!"
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
You steal? You're under arrest, period.
Real life, internet, it's just the same.
If the people steal from the rich corporations ,it's a crime punishable by fines and prison.
When the rich corporations steal from the people, it's called a bailout with a golden parachute , and never punished.
Ok so when we say french military, it's not the military people that u know .. french military police ( called gendarmerie ) are like policeman ( u know the GIGN ? it's the gendarmerie AND military ).... picture of our police :
http://www.rue89.com/files/20081201PoliceRoissyInside.jpg
and gendarme ( litteraly gunpeople ( 100k people and they are military in suit if u like )
picture : http://img82.imageshack.us/i/gendarme003rw6.jpg/
also i were VIP on that tracker, and i'm a bit scared atm ... but hey that's the game after all
Cheers guys ^^
And so what? What are they gonna do exactly? Is the police gonna arrest 250 000 users for downloading ?
I don't think so... They say they're gonna arrest people for donating, WTF???
Is the donation prohibited by the law in France? I live in France, and i can say no it's no forbidden, sites such as www.je-veux-etre-riche-aussi.com ask for donation with so much humour, are they gonna go to the jail too?
France sucks...
When the term "military" is used in this article, that's just our french press which tries to emphasize reality.
Actually, when they talk about "the military", they're refering to the french Gendarmerie Nationale.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gendarmerie_Nationale_(France)
"a military body charged with police duties among the civilian population and a military police / provost force."
They depend on the Ministry of Defense (while the french Police Nationale) depends on the Ministry of Interior) but they have the same kind of missions. That's not really the French Army :-)
Note that the Gendarmerie Nationale also acts in anti-pedophilia missions for example, so that's not really something rare.
Is the donation prohibited by the law in France? I live in France, and i can say no it's no forbidden, sites such as http://je-veux-etre-riche.com ask for donation with so much humour, are they gonna go to the jail too?