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In an effort to tackle online piracy, Lithuania has started imposing fines on online pirates. So far, fifty people have been fined 140 euros, mainly for sharing pirated movies on the private torrent tracker Linkomanija. According to a local lawyer, these measures will reduce piracy, but traffic to the country's largest torrent site does not appear to be affected.
While streaming piracy dominates in many parts of the world, many Lithuanians prefer to share content using BitTorrent.
Private torrent tracker Linkomania It is usually the best option. The site has been around for two decades and has weathered many storms, including a high profile lawsuit from Microsoft.
Users of the tracker have also been called repeatedly. Fourteen years ago, the local anti-piracy team LANVA reported on the IP addresses of 106 Linkomania users to the police with a request to take action. In response, the tracker operator reported the anti-piracy group to the police for illegally accessing his tracker.
As far as we know, these early moves did not result in prosecutions. The head of LANVA was finally imprisoned for drug traffickingbut that had little to do with the group's anti-piracy efforts or support from rights holders.
Today there is no trace of the infamous anti-piracy group, but that does not mean Linkomanija and its users are no longer at risk. The private tracker is currently blocked by major ISPs in Lithuania and its users are still being tracked.
€140 'Fines' for piracy
A breakthrough has arrived last summer when Lithuania amended its Code of Administrative Offenses, allowing the media watchdog LRTK fine pirates, without having to go to court. In the following months, dozens of fines were imposed, almost exclusively on Linkomanija users.
The targets were first-time offenders and all received a minimum fine of 140 euros. In case of repeat offense, fines can reach 600 euros.
According to our calculations, thirty people have been fined so far. However, a local news report from LRT mentions “around 50 people.” What is clear, however, is that users of the "private" torrent tracker are being watched.
"We can see them and their IP addresses and we cooperate with Internet service providers to obtain information," Vadimas Gasperskijus, spokesperson for the Lithuanian Radio and Television Commission, told LRT.
Those captured will have the opportunity to explain why their IP address appears in these "pirate" swarms. After receiving that information, the commission decides whether a fine is appropriate.
Reduction in piracy?
The Lithuanian system is quite unique and, on paper, should act as a reasonable deterrent against some casual downloaders. But will experienced torrent tracker users also be legal?
Lithuanian lawyer Andrius Iškauskas, who has represented several copyright holders in court, believes that current measures are sufficient to reduce the country's high piracy rates.
“The government has made it very clear to its citizens that no, we do not tolerate piracy,” says Iškauskas. "And I think that, along with other measures, it was a logical step that fits well into the overall anti-piracy effort and will reduce piracy."
This positive outlook is not directly supported by numbers. According to a recent report According to the EU Intellectual Property Office, Lithuania remains among the top three pirate countries. However, this data was collected before fines were issued; The next version should provide more clarity.
Linkomania vs. Netflix
However, there are other public statistics that we can use as an initial indicator. If we look at the number of visits to Linkomanija between September and November last year, we see little change.
Traffic figures for Lithuania's most popular torrent site, as reported by SimilarWeb, remain stable at around 1.7 million views per month. This is a considerable figure, since the country's population does not exceed three million.
While it makes sense that the thirty or fifty "fined" users no longer openly download content from Linkomanija today, there is certainly no mass exodus visible on the site.
Fortunately, there are also some positive figures for rights holders. The use of legal streaming services is increasing in Lithuania. The number of Netflix subscribers, for example, increased from 84,000 in the first half of 2022 to 90,000 a year later.
On the other hand, Linkonanija has more than 300,000 users according to the most recent count we have seen, so there is still some progress to be made.
