Swedish police claim massive anti-piracy bust

Waiting in wings of Pirate Bay trial

By Kelly Fiveash • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 9th March 2009 13:20 GMT

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Swedish police raided a location near Stockholm last month where computer equipment containing a huge bounty of alleged pirated material was seized by authorities.

The raid was carried out on 9 February, but private copyright advocacy outfit Antpiratbyrån only revealed that the bust had taken place late on Friday.

A server said to belong to a Nordic file-sharing ring known as Sunnydale was seized from a location in the Brandbergen neighbourhood, south of Stockholm, according to the anti-piracy agency.

It’s understood the server contained data equivalent to 16,000 movies.

"The well-organised pirates on the scene seem to have an inflated sense of their own ability to conceal themselves, but this raid shows that we can get to them,” said anti-piracy lawyer Henrik Pontén in a statement.

“Copyright applies to the internet too and we will continue to prioritise efforts to counteract these well-organised groups."

He claimed the Sunnydale ring, which consists of ten servers that contain some 65 terabytes of copyrighted material, had collapsed following the raid.

Pontén also claimed that the Sunnydale operation was the source of all pirated material found on The Pirate Bay.

However, The Pirate Bay co-founder, Peter Sunde dismissed some of the lawyer’s claims.

"More than 800,000 people have uploaded to The Pirate Bay, so I don't believe it's the source of everything. But it is possible that it's a major source," he told Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.

Sunde was the main spokesman during the now infamous entertainment industry versus The Pirate Bay trial that drew to a close last week. A judgment isn't expected until 17 April. ®

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