Italian Police Crack Down On DC++ Illegal P2P Network

Milan, Italy (Top40 Charts/ IFPI) - Weeks of monitoring by the Italian Fiscal Police (GDF) have led to a major crackdown against an alleged illegal music file-sharing network in Italy. Eleven individuals face prosecution and heavy fines following the police operation, which was carried out between three cities and dismantled a Direct Connect-based P2P network known as 'Discotequezone'.

Police have confirmed that the network administrators, plus seven people who uploaded large volumes of copyrighted music, are now being prosecuted. The raids, carried out during the past weeks by the Fiscal Police for Bergamo, were coordinated by the Public Prosecutor from Brescia, with assistance from the music industry anti-piracy organisation FPM. This is the second stage of the operation which started in March with several servers seized by the police.

A total of 11 computers and more than 110,000 illegal MP3 music files were seized in the operation which was carried out between Rome, Milan and Brescia. In two cases, police found paedophile content being distributed on the P2P network.

Under Italian Copyright Law, the 11 individuals involved now face very heavy penalties, with fines of up to 8.5 million Euros in each case.

Some 170 Italian file-sharers and illegal network administrators have been criminally prosecuted for music piracy in Italy in the last two years.