UK police arrest pirate who cost the music industry 'millions'
In its ongoing fight to reduce online piracy in the UK, the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) often targets people suspected of illegally sharing movies, music and other digital downloads. In Liverpool, the City of London division has today, with help from Merseyside Police and UK copyright agency PRS for Music, arrested a 38-year-old Liverpool man linked with illegally distributing the UK's Top 40 singles via download sites.
PIPCU says the man distributed the top-selling tracks and acappella music (songs that feature only vocals) via his website, netting him "significant advertising revenue" in the process. According to TorrentFreak, the uploader is also known for sharing his collections on two of the world's biggest torrent sites: The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents.
"It is estimated his actions could be costing the music industry millions of pounds and depriving the rightful creators of the content," says Merseyside Police in a statement. Whether he is responsible for those losses is another question altogether. Today's raid is the latest in an active few months for UK police, after forces successfully began putting the squeeze on pirate site advertising and seized thousands of modified Android streamers.
