A 33-year-old ringleader behind Denmark’s largest illegal file-sharing network DanishBits was sentenced by court in Copenhagen to one year in prison, of which three months were made unconditional, for copyright infringement of a particularly serious nature.
In 2016, the Rights Alliance reported that Danish films were illegally released before their official digital release date on the file-sharing network DanishBits. In addition to films, articles, e-books, audiobooks, and music were also illegally shared.
The report led to SØIK in October 2020 carrying out a comprehensive international action against the perpetrator, who performed key technical functions in the operation of DanishBits. The action resulted in the closure of the service as well as the arrest of the Danish ringleader, who was in Morocco. On March 18th, the Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that the culprit had been extradited to Denmark for prosecution, and the 27th he was thus sentenced to one year in prison, confiscation of DKK 250,000, and compensation to the Danish rights holders of DKK 250,000.
It appears in the case that the convicted – together with a support team – programmed, operated, and serviced the Danish-language website www.danishbits.org and maintained the servers that the website ran on in e.g., Holland and France. The convicted received a share of donations and payments for the purchase of services in Bitcoin and by bank transfers. DanishBits had approximately 30,000 users, most of whom accessed the service from Danish IP addresses. During the period, up to 78,000 files with copyrighted works were available in the system, which generated a turnover of approximately DKK 2,500,000, of which the convicted person obtained at least DKK 250,000, which has now been confiscated. In addition, the culprit must pay the Rights Alliance a compensation of DKK 250,000.
2 million monthly visits
The 33-year-old has since 2013 been involved in the operation of DanishBits, which has functioned as a closed file-sharing network, where users have had access to a sea of illegal content in exchange for either helping to share the content with other users in the network or by paying for it. According to data from Similarweb, the service had 2 million monthly visits and has thus been among the most visited websites in Denmark – more visited than both Trustpilot and HBO Nordic.
DanishBits has been a hotbed for illegal sharing of Danish-produced content, among other things. For example, the Rights Alliance registered that most Danish films hit the illegal market on DanishBits before their official digital premiere, after which they spread to other illegal platforms.
Big victory for the Danish rights holders
At the Rights Alliance, director Maria Fredenslund expresses great joy at the outcome of the case:
“It is extremely important that some examples are set to show that it does not pay to be a criminal. Not online either. For many years, Danish rights holders had to watch their films etc. being stolen from these pirate services without the intervention of the authorities. Therefore, it is crucial that clear signals are now being sent that piracy is illegal and that breaking the law has consequences. We have a highly professional unit in SØIK’s IP-Task force, which has once again done a fantastic job, ”says Maria Fredenslund.
Significant decrease in illegal sharing
During autumn and winter, the four Danish illegal file-sharing services closed, which formed the Danish scene for illegal content. The four services DanishBits, NordicBits, Asgaard and ShareUniversity, together are estimated to have had more than 50,000 Danish users. The services have first and foremost been a marketplace for content targeted at Danish consumers. I.e., Danish film and text content, and it is without a doubt these services that have done the most damage to the Danish rights holders – both because the Danish content has been published here before the official release, but also because the Danish content has had a particularly prominent place here.
Since then, attempts have been made to establish new Danish file-sharing services, but as the graph below shows, the vast majority of the former Danish pirates have stopped their illegal activities on the Danish services. Where popular Danish feature films before the campaigns were downloaded up to 30,000 times, the picture now looks completely different with approx. 1,000 downloads after shutting down the above services.
In addition to the closure of the four illegal services and the arrest of ringleaders, we have from SØIK also seen an increased focus on the hardcore users who repeatedly share illegal content. This focus has been noticed in pirate circles and is believed to have influenced the remaining number of pirates. Senior prosecutor Kaare Linde from SØIK, stated in connection with the verdict against a 35-year-old hardcore user in March, the following: “We are not only looking for the culprits behind the file sharing services, but also for the users. The convict was a hardcore user, and you shall not feel safe at home behind the computer if you download movies illegally.“
The Public Prosecutor’s Office’s press release from the 27th’s verdict further emphasizes that the investigation of file sharing cases and their users is continued a focus of SØIK’s special IPR unit.