site.btaInterior Ministry: Cybercrime Unit Takes Down Two Websites for Copyright Infringement

The Cybercrime Directorate of the Directorate General for Combating Organized Crime (DGCOC) has stopped the illegal distribution of audiovisual works, carried out without the legally required consent of the respective copyright holders, which is a crime under the Criminal Code, the Interior Ministry said here on Wednesday.

One person has been detained in the specialized operation conducted earlier in the day. Two addresses were searched, from which computer configurations and disk drives facilitating criminal activity were seized.

In the course of the investigative actions, the activity of two websites was suspended. It has been established that during the period of their existence the websites offered unauthorised access to over 20,000 different audiovisual works. The manner of the criminal activity and the means of its financing have been established.

The specialised operation of the cyber police was carried out under the supervision of the Plovdiv District Prosecutor's Office and in coordination with Europol within the framework of EMPACT - the programme for multidisciplinary and multiagency operational cooperation to combat organised crime at EU level and with the priority activity of combating and disrupting criminal networks of individual entrepreneurs involved in crimes against intellectual property.

Work on the case continues, the press release said.

The appellate prosecution office in Plovdiv reported later in the day that a 41 year-old male has been charged.