U.K. Authorities Target Pre-Release Piracy Group DV8

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 22, 2009 - 12:07pm.

London - A U.K. man allegedly connected with the pre-release piracy group DV8 was arrested earlier this month, in the aftermath of a joint investigation by authorities and record label trade groups BPI and IFPI, according to published reports.

The DV8 group is reportedly responsible for leaking over 2,500 albums onto file-sharing networks before their official release dates.

TorrentFreak reported that multiple arrests were made, but Billboard referenced a single 33-year-old; in addition to the arrests, the raids also reportedly included seizure of computers, mobile phones, promotional CDs, bank statements and other items.

"Although the investigation continues, even at this early stage we believe that a full forensic examination of the equipment recovered will yield a lot of useful evidence and intelligence about the 'scene' and the criminal activities of those involved in pre-release music uploading," David Wood, director of anti-piracy at the BPI, told Billboard.

Similar raids have been conducted in the U.K. targeting administrators pre-release groups including OiNK, TV Links and AradiTracker.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/kofo8 (TorrentFreak)

http://snipurl.com/koert (Billboard)

http://www.sceneforce.com/browse/group-dv8/page/