Owner of world’s top file-sharing website detained in Poland

The website run by Ukrainian national Artem Vaulin, 30, has allowed free access to countless films, music recordings, games and TV shows, causing losses to the content owners reaching an estimated USD 1 bn in total, according to a statement released by the US Attorney’s Office.

The United States wants a speedy extradition of the Ukrainian so that he can stand trial on charges including copyright infringement and money-laundering.

"In an effort to evade law enforcement, Vaulin allegedly relied on servers located in countries around the world and moved his domains due to repeated seizures and civil lawsuits,“ said US Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell.

"His arrest in Poland, however, demonstrates again that cybercriminals can run, but they cannot hide from justice," she added.

An estimated 50 million unique visitors tap into the website’s illegal resources each month, making it one of the 70 most popular websites on the internet.

The BitTorrent file-sharing protocol allows users, also known as peers, to download files while at the same time sharing the data with other users. (aba/pk)

Source: IAR, PAP