Italian DirectConnect P2P network shut down after police raids

Rome, 27th March 2007

The infringing peer-to-peer (P2P) hub known as Discotequezone has been shut down after the Fiscal Police (GdF), acting with search warrants issued by the Public Prosecutor of Brescia and assisted by the Federation Against Music Piracy (FPM), raided several locations in Italy. The operation targeted five servers and four heavy uploaders involved in the massive distribution of copyright infringing music tracks through file-sharing platforms. Eleven people have been charged with copyright infringement. The police crackdown led to the seizure of 16 computers, 27 external hard disks and more than 1000 DVD-Rs and CD-Rs with a total of more than five terabytes of copyright protected works.

More than 195 individuals have been criminally prosecuted for illegal P2P distribution in Italy since 2005.