Saturday 18 December 2004

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Share Connector disconnected

Earlier in the year, copyright and law enforcement authorities pulled the plug on Share Reactor, what was then the largest and most popular eDonkey verified links resource. Soon after, www.shareconnector.com emerged to take its place, and was even considered by some P2P enthusiasts to be superior. Like its once-thought-untouchable predecessor, Share Connector attracted its fair share of undesirable attention. Several months ago the administrative team received a number of e-threats from a private copyright defence organisation called Brein. These were brushed off as trivial bluster and the Netherlands-based site continued to feed the donkey with illegal software, movies and music.

Just when the Share Connector crew thought they'd heard the last from Brein, director Tim Kuik lost patience and tattled to the FIOD-ECD (the Dutch fiscal crime investigation unit), and together they managed to tear down the site. The swoop also brought about the disbandment of the eDonkey hash-stash emporium, Releases4U; in all, eight people were arrested and eleven computers confiscated.

Kuik and Co now intend to launch legal proceedings against the operators of the two sites and their hosts. If proven guilty of facilitating the act of piracy they could be expected to fork out damages running into millions of dollars, or even face up to four years of jail-time.

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