French piracy website shut down

POLICE in Rennes have shut down one of France’s most popular websites for downloading pirated content, and arrested three men who ran it.

Liberty Land, set up in September 2009, was one of the most frequented sites in France, claiming 800,000 users accessing and sharing pirated music, films and software.

Jean-Philippe Vidal, Rennes police chief, said three men aged between 25 and 30 were arrested in Marseilles, near Le Havre and in the Paris suburb of Montreuil, and charged with organised counterfeiting.

They face five years in jail and a €500,000 fine.

The arrests follow a year-long probe after a music copyright protection body tracked a site contributor to Rennes.

Vidal said investigators had succeeded in tracing the operators of the site, which had erected a large number of barriers to protect them and used a server in Canada.