TorrentFreak reports that the Hollywood funded Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) has been successfully convincing police into busting down doors of some of the lesser known torrent sites of the world. What’s interesting is that after the whole scare-down, no real action seems to have taken place. Read more below:

While sites like The Pirate Bay grab most of the headlines in the BitTorrent world, there is another thriving part of the eco-system which attracts much less attention. The Internet currently plays host to many hundreds, probably thousands, of so-called private BitTorrent trackers.

These sites usually require an invitation to become a part of and tend to be much more organized than their public counterparts…

One such site, SceneTorrents (ScT), had been working the private scene for nearly 4.5 years but on 27th November 2009, it all came crashing down. (TF)

Arrest:

Feeling (ex-owner of ScT) told us. “On 27th November 2009, the police turn up at my door at 6am – two detectives, a few police and a Proceeds of Crime officer.” Along with the police came two investigators from FACT….“The police handcuffed me and arrested me for copyright theft and money laundering,”Feeling was then driven a few miles to the nearest big police station where he was taken into custody and held in a cell. Several hours later his questioning began. (TF)

Interrogation:

“The police started off asking me about ScT… also questioned me about other sites I had no part in but they thought I did,” Feeling explained.

“The FACT guy sat there most of the time just listening, and he would chirp in now and then with his limited knowledge of BitTorrent and P2P.”

The police did not know a single thing about BitTorrent, P2P or anything else like that,” he explains. “I found it quiet disappointing that FACT had told the police that I was a major criminal to get them to arrest me and search my house.”

Convincing the police that file-sharing site operators are major criminals is a speciality of FACT – they have managed that in many cases already including TV-Links, FileSoup, SurfTheChannel and AradiTracker, to name a few. (TF)

Release:

Once the interview process was completed, Feeling was required to give a DNA sample and have his picture taken. He was then released on bail and given a date in February 2010 to return.

At home he discovered items had been taken by FACT – two Xboxes, a PC, portable hard drives, a phone, and even cash. Later that evening the phone and money were returned but Feeling was required to sign documents granting access to his bank accounts. (TF)

The Wait For Justice:

In February 2010, just two days before Feeling was due to answer his bail, the Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) handling the case contacted him.. and a new bail date was set for May 2010.

In May the same thing happened … July….Christmas.. But then in March 2011, Feeling read an article on the now-failed case against FileSoup, again with FACT at the helm.

With cases failing all around them, FACT don’t have a good record when it comes to successful file-sharing site prosecutions so Feeling’s lawyers are now pressing the police to get something done about these continuing delays.

As reported briefly yesterday, FACT continue with their drive to close down UK-based file-sharing sites with the assistance of the police, but without a successful prosecution to their name despite many arrests, one wonders for how long this can continue.  (More here)

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