Athens – Police in Greece have shut down the country’s largest download site and arrested six people after a complaint from a private copyright group, authorities said on Wednesday.
The site, www.gamato.info, had 850 000 members and was attracting 16 million users daily for illegal film, music and videogame downloads, the police said.
Acting on a complaint from the Greek copyright protection agency (EPOE), police on Tuesday raided the six suspects’ homes in Athens, Larissa, Pella and Thessaloniki, confiscating 27 hard disks, five laptops and over 600 CDs.
The six men detained were site moderators and high-ranking members, the police said in a statement.
Another five people are being sought in relation to the case.
Interpol has been notified as two of the suspects live abroad.
Greece currently ranks third in Europe in copyright infringement cases behind Bulgaria and Romania, the police said in a statement.
Pirated films, music and software has cost Greek rightsholders nearly a billion euros in lost revenue in the last seven years, according to preliminary company estimates. – Sapa-AFP
