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Four out of seven ringleaders behind the pirate service Asgaard have now been convicted

Mar 17, 2022 | Trials

17. March 2022

The closed file-sharing service Asgaard was run by an organized network consisting of seven criminal ringleaders, each of whom had an important role in the operation and development of the illegal service.

On Tuesday 15th of March, two ringleaders behind the file-sharing service Asgaard were convicted of copyright infringement of a particularly serious nature. Thus, four out of a total of seven criminal ringleaders have now been convicted of being behind the closed file-sharing service.’Both cases went before the court in Odense on Tuesday, and the sentence were in both cases 3 months’ suspended sentences and 80 hours of community service. Both ringleaders were also sentenced to confiscation of a dividend of DKK 2,282 and of their mobile phones, in addition to a claim for compensation of DKK 35,000 to the rights holders. One of the perpetrators received the verdict, while the other took time to think.

Organized network of criminals

The file-sharing service Asgaard was set up in May 2019 by seven ringleaders, four of whom are currently convicted and two who are charged and awaiting court hearings. This is since SØIK (now National Unit for Special Crime – NSK) over the autumn and winter of 2020 carried out actions against the Danish file-sharing environment, which led to the closure of the service and that the first culprit was remanded in custody over Christmas and New Year, before he was convicted in June 2021. In February 2022, the second initiator was convicted, while court hearings are planned soon for two of the three remaining principals behind Asgaard.

Amongst the perpetrators, several have many years of activities behind them in the Danish pirate community, both as perpetrators and users of the file sharing services DanishBits, NordicBits and ShareUniversity.

The Asgaard service is the result of an organized criminal network, in which the respective ringleaders each played a specific role. This is a picture formed by Rights Alliance’s investigation as well as the convicts’ explanations at the court hearings.The culprits are all Danish men in the age range 35-50 years, several of whom are family fathers and employees in ordinary jobs. They all helped start Asgaard in May 2019, and five out of seven continued their activities until the actions in December 2020. Asgaard had up to 23,000 users who made a total of 15,000 illegal files available during the service’s lifetime.

Get an overview of the functions of the various ringleaders in the operation of the file sharing service here.

Cases provide knowledge about criminal networks

This is the first time that it has been possible to find the identities of the entire criminal network behind a Danish file-sharing service. Therefore, these cases may have a major impact on the investigation of the illegal market in the future and on the general picture of the file-sharing environment and how the criminal networks behind it operate.

Maria Fredenslund, CEO of the Rights Alliance, says:

The ringleader cases for Asgaard clearly illustrate that rights holders’ media content, film series, etc. are used to commit systematic, organized crime. For each completed case, a clearer picture emerges of how the people behind the file-sharing service organize themselves and what methods they use. We are becoming increasingly aware of the illegal market and cases like this may contribute insights that will be crucial in the IPR unit’s future efforts to prevent copyright infringement on the Internet.

Prosecutor at NSK Christian Raaholt Hahn says:

It is gratifying that the prosecution’s handling of the cases has led to financial compensation for the Rights Alliance, which represents a large number of members, including Nordisk Film, Zentropa, Scanbox Entertainment and SF Studios.”