In August 2015, BREIN announced that it had reached a private agreement with members of ‘Dutch Release Team’ (DRT), a group that had uploaded movies to torrent sites including The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents.
The deal entailed them deleting their files from Kickass, paying a cash settlement, and informing on remaining members of the group.
Now BREIN has announced a new development which should herald the final nail in the coffin for another release group. According to the anti-piracy outfit it first identified and then settled with the last active member of DMT (Dutch Movie Theater).
According to BREIN the man uploaded mostly movies and eBooks on an almost daily basis to sites including KickassTorrents and The Pirate Bay. Revealing his alias as ‘ipod020’, BREIN says that overall around 5,000 torrents were uploaded.
On Kickass, where the man used to have an active account, all torrents have been deleted. In their place sits a warning message (Dutch, translated by TF) to other would-be releasers.
“Illegal uploading and downloading costs a lot of money to the film industry, but also to me. Do not do it. I had to settle with BREIN for thousands of euros,” the message reads.
Although BREIN hasn’t publicly made any connection, in November it announced that an injunction had been obtained following an ex-parte case against a 20-year-old student, who uploaded over 750 torrents to KickassTorrents.
He appears to have been connected to the same group and also reached a compensation agreement with BREIN. His KickassTorrents account displays a message too.
“We deal with increasingly prolific uploaders,” says BREIN chief Tim Kuik commenting on this week’s case.
“Some uploaders pretend it is a harmless hobby, while they’re causing extensive damage and illegal sites are profiting handsomely. If you run into trouble, it is an expensive hobby for sure.”
In closing, the anti-piracy boss warns of an active 2016 in which BREIN will continue to track down content uploaders.
“There are more investigations in the pipeline, and next year we’ll launch an even more comprehensive approach where we will use software to trace uploaders,” Kuik concludes.
