AfterDawn: News

Greek police take down torrent tracker

Greek authorities have taken down the large torrent tracker Gamato.info, accusing the site of facilitating copyright infringement of music, games, movies, and books.

Six admins of the site were also arrested in raids of their homes in Athens, Salonika, Larissa and Aridaia.



The police officials were working on tips from IFPI Greece, the local branch of the industry group.

Gamato.info was a top 20 most visited site in Greece, with an estimated 155,000 daily visitors. The site had around 13,000 movies, 6500 games and over 35,000 music albums available.

Says Jeremy Banks, director of anti-piracy at IFPI: "Gamato.info was facilitating the illegal distribution of music, film, games and books. It is the perfect illustration of how such illegal operations are damaging a wide range of creative industries in Europe. The Hellenic Police swiftly recognized this was not a victimless crime and took action against those who sought to shamelessly profit off the back of others' creative work. This skilfully executed action by a highly knowledgeable police force should act as a real deterrent to others in Greece considering engaging in online piracy."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 14 Mar 2010 22:08

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• 12 comments

• jimfitter

  It's good to see that the IFPI takes precedence over; the civil unrest in the streets, and the collapse of that country's economy. What a joke.

  14.3.2010 22:27 #1

• llongtheD

  Originally posted by jimfitter: It's good to see that the IFPI takes precedence over; the civil unrest in the streets, and the collapse of that country's economy. What a joke.I know your not surprised to see that corporate profits take precedence over the welfare of the people, and the health of the economy. Maybe we should be though.

  14.3.2010 22:54 #2

• DXR88

  cant wait till they raid a real pirates house. a little bloodshed to shake things up.

  15.3.2010 00:37 #3

• JOHNSTARR

  1 more down ----> 100 more up
  
  - Way too risky running a torrent site these days with the monster fines / jail time. Yes I'm aware of the insane $$$ collected in donations the top sites get however there has to be a time where enough is enough.
  

  No time for Leap frog!!!

  15.3.2010 02:56 #4

• grkblood

  It never shocks me to see some of stupid comments in here like "why arnt they helping stop world hunger instead" or something like that. Law enforcement doesn't ONLY do Internet torrent site raids, you'd have to be a complete idiot to think that was the case which I think some people actually are that post here.
  
  Listen, you play with fire and you might get burned. These guys knew it and unfortunately they got burned. Just because you might not agree with the law its the law and it has to be enforced to some extent. These sites are high profile, they're not your average joe schmoe user, so of course at some point they're going to try to go after it.
  
  Stop living in a fantasy world and check back in to real life.

  15.3.2010 10:39 #5

• ThePastor

  Catching LEGAL torrent indexers is much easier than catching REAL PIRATES off of the coast of somalia!
  
  :D
  Go Greece! I feel safer!

  15.3.2010 19:52 #6

• pavlos

  This is a laugh.
  They go after one of the torrent sites in Greece but they still have the bootleggers on every street corner in Greece selling DVD moves, CD's and rip off handbags.
  There's even shops in Athens dedicated to selling copies of games and programs and hacking phones.

  18.3.2010 17:32 #7

• llongtheD

  Originally posted by grkblood: It never shocks me to see some of stupid comments in here like "why arnt they helping stop world hunger instead" or something like that. Law enforcement doesn't ONLY do Internet torrent site raids, you'd have to be a complete idiot to think that was the case which I think some people actually are that post here.
  
  Listen, you play with fire and you might get burned. These guys knew it and unfortunately they got burned. Just because you might not agree with the law its the law and it has to be enforced to some extent. These sites are high profile, they're not your average joe schmoe user, so of course at some point they're going to try to go after it.
  
  Stop living in a fantasy world and check back in to real life. I don't think anyone is saying that laws shouldn't be enforced or that this is all law enforcement does. More and more law enforcement is being pushed to protect corporate interests because of laws that have been pushed through by corporations and their lobbyists. The stiff penalties and fines are actually more than violent crime in some cases.
  These "task forces" are funded by taxpayer money not corporate money. Maybe there is better things to spend our money on? The giant movie and music studios seem to be doing just fine.
  That's just my opinion, I'm not condoning piracy, its just some of the laws that are pushed through aren't even voted for by citizens.
  

  If your fish seems sick, put it back in the water.

  18.3.2010 19:07 #8

• Mez

  Quote:It never shocks me to see some of stupid comments in here like "why arnt they helping stop world hunger instead" or something like that. I resemble that comment! Just think... If they feed the all starving in the world there will be twice as many starving people in 5 years. I guess that must be a good thing.

  18.3.2010 21:30 #9

• ChappyTTV

  Originally posted by Mez: Quote:It never shocks me to see some of stupid comments in here like "why arnt they helping stop world hunger instead" or something like that. I resemble that comment! Just think... If they feed the all starving in the world there will be twice as many starving people in 5 years. I guess that must be a good thing.
  Although it's not "Politically Correct" to say so, the best thing that could happen for this planet is to "cull the herd" by a few billion, and we all know it. Not that I would advocate an actual culling, or want to decide who to cull, or be culled myself...but Earth just can't sustain this population.
  
  Uhh... what were we talking about again? Oh yah, Greek trackers...lessee..ummm...I'll get back to you on this.
  ;)
  

  20.3.2010 19:29 #10

• DXR88

  Originally posted by ChappyTTV: Originally posted by Mez: Quote:It never shocks me to see some of stupid comments in here like "why arnt they helping stop world hunger instead" or something like that. I resemble that comment! Just think... If they feed the all starving in the world there will be twice as many starving people in 5 years. I guess that must be a good thing.
  Although it's not "Politically Correct" to say so, the best thing that could happen for this planet is to "cull the herd" by a few billion, and we all know it. Not that I would advocate an actual culling, or want to decide who to cull, or be culled myself...but Earth just can't sustain this population.
  
  Uhh... what were we talking about again? Oh yah, Greek trackers...lessee..ummm...I'll get back to you on this.
  ;) its called a World War and we are long past due.
  

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  21.3.2010 09:15 #11

• garmoon

  Whoopee! we're all gonna die! and it's 1, 2 3.....

  21.3.2010 21:47 #12