An investigation, codenamed Operation D-Elite, has led to authorities executing search warrants against 10 members of Elite Torrents filesharing network. Federal agents also took control of the main server that coordinated all file-sharing activity on the Elite Torrents network.
Employing the peer-to-peer file sharing technology known as BitTorrent, the Elite Torrents network attracted more than 133,000 members and, in the last four months, allegedly facilitated the illegal distribution of more than 17,800 titles, including movies and software, which were downloaded 2.1m times.
John Richter, acting assistant attorney general, said: "Our goal is to shut down as much of this illegal operation as quickly as possible to stem the serious financial damage to the victims of this high-tech piracy -- the people who labour to produce these copyrighted products."
Now users who attempt to log on to will be greeted with a message reading: "This site has been permanently shut down by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement".
The move was welcomed by the Motion Picture Association of America, which campaigns against movie piracy, claiming that it cost the film industry $3.5bn (拢1.9bn) in 2004.
"Today's actions are bad news for internet movie thieves and good news for preserving the magic of the movies," MPAA president and CEO Dan Glickman said.
"Shutting down illegal file swapping networks like Elite Torrents is an essential part of our fight to stop movie thieves from stealing copyrighted materials."
Elite Torrents received 8.5m hits a day and was visited by more than 100,000 users daily. The site posted several thousand movie titles including 'House of Wax', 'Kingdom of Heaven', 'Monster-in-Law' and 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'. It also carried many television shows including the full seasons of 'Desperate Housewives' and 'Lost'.
It was also one of the first sites to make the latest 'Star Wars' film, 'Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith', available to download before it had hit cinemas.
The MPAA has successfully filed a number of lawsuits against BitTorrent type sites.
Earlier this year, LokiTorrent was put out of the business and in early May, the MPAA brought lawsuits against six new sites focused largely on facilitating the illegal swapping of television shows. Four of those six sites have already shut down, including shuntv.net and btefnet.net.
The association says that film piracy cuts into revenues, which in turn limits choice at the box office. It says that 60% of all movies never recoup their production and marketing costs, which average well over $100m.
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