UK BitTorrent site owner raided, arrested

The owner of what’s thought could be one of the oldest BitTorrent sites on the web has had his home raided before being arrested and having possessions seized. UK-based Filesoup, which was founded in 2003, was targeted by police and copyright infringement officers on Monday.

Filesoup bills itself as “the first and foremost BitTorrent community on the Web” and was founded at a vintage time for torrent sites – the same year as The Pirate Bay. However, unlike its Swedish cousin, Filesoup had managed to keep a low profile and stay out of the copyright campaigners’ cross hairs. In 2005 the site ceased to operate a tracker, instead deciding to carry links to metadata stored elsewhere.

Just after nine o’clock on Monday morning, police officers and representatives of British anti-piracy outfit the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) raided the home address of Filesoup’s owner. With them they had a warrant, filed under Section 109 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, authorising them to gather evidence from the “premises” (which, interestingly enough, includes “moveable structures, vehicles, vessels, aircraft and hovercraft” under UK law). Here’s what it said they were looking for:-

Evidence in relation to the illegal distribution or illegal filesharing of copyrighted films however held, whether electronically or otherwise. Also any evidence in relation to payments received relating to the illegal distribution or illegal filesharing of copyrighted films held whether electronically or otherwise.

Filesoup’s owner, Steve, was bailed later that day and has since reported the incident on his site’s forums. “At 5pm a solicitor arrived and I was put in an interview room to speak with him and his assistant” he says. “I said that with my limited knowledge … downloading of something which had copyright, was a civil offence and not a criminal one. I asked him why the police were involved in this case [and] he told me that under Section 109 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act of 1988, the downloading of any copyrighted item, without the owners consent, was a criminal offence and not a civil one. First I knew of it!”

The charge that’s been laid against Steve is “Suspicion of downloading copyrighted movies.” He says that while he was imprisoned he refused to sign a list of items he was told had been taken from his home – including various computer hardware and blank media – and that he now has to apply to FACT’s senior investigator to get them back. “No one in their right mind would have signed to say any of these items were their property,” Steve continues, “especially if they’d not been there when it was seized!” He also alleges he was refused a phone call for the duration of his time at the police station.

“I got back home just before 8pm to find my belongings had been turned upside down, the dining room was a like a whirlwind had gone through,” he says. “I’m not the tidiest of people as it is, but at least I knew where everything was, but after they had been there going through everything, they’d turfed out all the drawers of the desk, chucked back what was of no interest to them, left a pile of paperwork scattered across my desk and table with wires everywhere. Talk about a nightmare!” For Steve that nightmare will resume on October 2nd, when he has to “surrender” himself back into police custody.

Tags: BitTorrent, copyright, FACT, file sharing, Filesoup, P2P, Section 109, The Pirate Bay, torrent, tracker