A 48-year-old man from East Jutland has been sentenced to 60 days’ suspended imprisonment as the last person behind the illegal file-sharing network Asgaard
The National Unit for Special Crime (NSK) has sentenced a 48-year-old man from East Jutland to a suspended prison sentence of 60 days for copyright infringement of a particularly serious nature in a confession case in Horsens Court.
In the period from July to September 2019, the man and several other people established the file-sharing service Asgaard (Asgrd.dk), which at its peak had up to 23,000 users who accessed at least 15,000 copyrighted works in the form of films, TV series and the like. Six co-conspirators have previously been convicted for their part in the infringement. From January to April 2019, the now convicted man also helped manage another large file-sharing service, nordicbits.eu, for which he was also convicted.
RettighedsAlliancen reported the people behind Asgaard to the NSK (then SØIK) in October 2020.
CEO of the Rights Alliance, Maria Fredenslund, says:
“The verdict puts a definitive end to the series of cases against seven ringleaders who were behind Asgaard and also played a significant role in the operation of the Danish file-sharing environment. The decision also marks that Danish file sharing services no longer pose a threat to Danish rights holders, thanks to the invaluable efforts of the Rights Protection Section at NSK.”
Prosecutor at NSK, Hans Bohn Sørensen, said:
“I am pleased with the verdict, which now concludes the cases against the founders and administrators of one of the largest illegal file sharing services we have had in Denmark. The service gave users illegal access to a huge amount of copyrighted material. When you illegally download copyrighted material, the creators are cheated out of their rightful income and it undermines the economy behind the production.”
Read the press release from NSK here (Danish)
From report to seven convicted backers
In October 2020, The Rights Alliance reported the now convicted ringleaders behind Asgaard to SØIK, which led to the arrest and custody of the main ringleader on December 21, 2020, and the other ringleaders then chose to shut down the service voluntarily. Shortly after, the remaining backers were also arrested, which has led to all seven backers being brought to court and convicted between June 2021 and now.
The file sharing service Asgaard experienced a huge boost in the number of visitors after SØIK’s action in the fall of 2020 led to the shutdown of the two largest Danish file sharing services DanishBits and NordicBits. With 1.5 million visits in November 2020, Asgaard became the largest remaining Danish pirate service, illegally sharing at least 15,000 files, including Danish news articles, books and movies. The seven people behind Asgaard are aged 35-55 and each played a specific role in the creation and operation of the illegal service.