Last Thursday, a Danish court sentenced a 24-year-old programmer from Silkeborg to 60 days of probation for his role in operating torrent tracker ShareUniversity.
The ruling is the latest in Denmark following an unprecedented crackdown on local torrent trackers that has already resulted in more than a dozen prosecutions, with more to come.
The National Special Crimes Unit (NSK) reports May you be happy with the conviction. In addition to serving the suspended prison sentence, the man must also pay 20,000 Danish crowns ($2,800) to the Rights Alliance, which represents copyright holders.
โI am satisfied with the verdict, which is based on meticulous investigative work. The ruling underlines that copyright infringement is a crime that the judicial system takes seriously,โ says NSK prosecutor Jan รstergaard.
Until now, Danish courts have mostly handed down suspended prison sentences, making Press releases a bit repetitive. However the Rights Alliancewhich was a driving force in the early investigations, recently decided to share additional background.
Covert operation
Thomas Heldrup, head of content protection and compliance at the anti-piracy group, has been running a covert operation for more than half a decade. This helped police identify many of the targets and also played a role in the most recent prosecution.
โWe were undercover at ShareUniversity and based on what we gathered from this work, authorities filed the case that led to last week's sentencing,โ Heldrup tells TorrentFreak.
As detailed in the Danish podcast ZealandIt all started when the Rights Alliance infiltrated the private tracker DanishBits in 2016.
Heldrup initially registered as a regular user of the tracker seven years ago. He wasn't interested in downloading movies or music. Instead, he attempted to map and follow the site's main figures, with the ultimate goal of identifying the main boss, MrDB.
The covert operation meticulously followed the public discussions, taking notes on the tracker's key figures. From time to time, some comments revealed people's ages or occupations, but progress was slow. In the end it took a financial problem to really get things going.
MrDB was particularly cautious and did not share personal details. However, when there was a problem with the site's Bitcoin donations, it quickly put up a new payment option, so users could pay directly in Danish krone. This patch allowed the lawyer to track the money, which was sent to a bank in Belize.
From the Caribbean to Africa
While it is appropriate for a pirate to bank in the Caribbean, the paper trail ultimately led to the downfall of the tracker. The real breakthrough came when Heldrup's constant monitoring revealed MrDB's true name.
It's unclear where the name arose, but according to the Zetland article, it was mentioned during online discussions between Danish trackers, who had a long-standing rivalry. That name, combined with information from Belize, eventually led to the operator, who was neither in the Caribbean nor Denmark.
In the fall of 2020, Danish authorities finally located the DanishBits operator, then 33 years old, in Morocco, where he was arrested and eventually extradited to Denmark.
domino tracker
The arrest marked the end of the popular tracker and the beginning of a crackdown, which also hit a rival tracker around the same time. In that investigation, police identified the NordicBits operator, 69, who lived in Spain.
Under questioning, the operator of NordicBits admitted his involvement in the site and agreed to voluntarily shut it down. The Danish authorities intended to take the operator to court, but the man was seriously ill and died before being prosecuted.
MrDB's prosecution continued and he eventually received a one-year prison sentence, of which nine months were conditional. Meanwhile, other goals were also lining up.
After the closure of DanishBits and NordicBits, two smaller trackers, Asgaard and ShareUniversity, took over. These sites accepted many new members but also attracted the attention of the Rights Alliance and the police, who kept up the pressure.
With the help of undercover work and follow-up investigations by authorities, trackers folded after a few weeksindeed decimating the local torrent tracking scene.
Several people involved with these sites, including uploaders and users, were prosecuted and many received suspended prison sentences.
An undercover lawyer speaks
Looking back over the past few years, Thomas Heldrup is proud of what he has achieved. While the undercover work was important, active collaboration between rights holders and the Danish police's specialized intellectual property crime unit proved to be the key to success.
"Our work typically needs to be supported by the investigative tools that police have at their disposal to track and reveal information about citizens," Heldrup tells us.
The Right Alliance could have chosen to bring civil cases, but they would not have been as successful. The authorities' investigative tools are broader and the anti-piracy group also believes that it is more appropriate for official authorities to bring these cases to justice.
Heldrup was sometimes surprised to see how much personal information staff and uploaders shared online. Sometimes they were simply too eager to share, which ultimately allowed both the Rights Alliance and the police to connect the dots.
โI can say that our undercover work put us in a position to map which profiles were the crucial actors in the operation of the sites and where police resources were best spent taking them down.
โWe spent a lot of time collecting information that, taken as a whole, could allow us to identify the people arrested in these cases. And yes, it was a surprise to what extent people are willing to share information about themselves on these platforms,โ concludes Heldrup.
โ
Below is a summary of the cases processed so far. The trial against several alleged operators of the Asgaard tracker is scheduled for February next year. Danish readers can learn more about the covert operation through the Zetland Podcast.
| Goals | Service | Sentence date | |
| leader | ShareUniversity | 05.10.2023 | |
| users and shippers | DanishBytes, Notor, SuperBits | 09/13/2023 | |
| users and shippers | Asgard | 06/22/2023 | |
| ringleader(s) | Asgard | 04.24.2023 | |
| ringleader(s) | seed box | 02/28/2023 | |
| users and shippers | Danish bytes | 11/25/2022 | |
| ringleader(s) | Danish bytes | 14.11.2022 | |
| ringleader(s) | Asgard | 03.11.2022 | |
| users and shippers | SuperBits / Nielsen Networks | 01.09.2022 | |
| ringleader(s) | Asgard | 03/15/2022 | |
| ringleader(s) | Asgard | 03/15/2022 | |
| ringleader(s) | Asgard | 04.02.2022 | |
| ringleader(s) | Asgard | 06/15/2021 | |
| ringleader(s) | Danish bits | 04/27/2021 | |
| users and shippers | Danish bits | 03/23/2021 | |
| ringleader(s) | Plex Server | 03.03.2021 | |
| ringleader(s) | Next Generation | 05/07/2020 | |
| users and shippers | Danish bits | 02/12/2020 | |
| users and shippers | Danish bits | 06/25/2019 | |
| ringleader(s) | movie locker | 01.11.2018 |
