Acting on behalf of various copyright holders, anti-piracy group BREIN has shut down the private torrent tracker Snuffelland. The group tracked down the site's operators, a middle-aged married couple and a 60-year-old uploader. All agreed to a pay a modest settlement.
Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN has targeted operators and uploaders of pirate sites for more than a decade.
The group’s main goal is to shut the sites down. Instead of getting embroiled in dozens of lengthy court battles, it prefers to settle the matter with those responsible.
This week, BREIN announced another victory against a small torrent site, Snuffelland. The private tracker was targeted at a Dutch audience and the anti-piracy group managed to track down its operators.
According to BREIN, the site was run by a married couple from the town of Montfort, a 65-year-old man and a 51-year-old woman. In addition, the group also identified one of the uploaders, a 60-year-old man from Heukelum.
All three are unemployed and their financial position was taken into account in determining the scale of the settlement. The couple agreed to pay 2,500 euros and the uploader settled for 650 euros, with a threat of further penalties if they are caught again.
The private tracker itself was shut down and replaced by a message that was provided by BREIN.
“Making copyright-protected works available infringes the copyrights of the entitled rightsholder. Downloading from unauthorized sources is also prohibited in the Netherlands,” the message reads.
“For providers of legal content, snuffelland.org refers you to thecontentmap.nl and film.nl,” it adds.
These type of shutdowns are nothing new. BREIN has taken down hundreds of smaller sites in the past. However, only in recent years has the group has started to publish these settlement details.
That serves as a deterrent but also provides some more insight into how the group prefers to solve these cases, which appears to be relatively softly. In this case, it also disproves the notion that torrent sites are run by youngsters.