After more than two decades of surviving legal and political pressure, the largest websites of the Bulgarian illegal file-sharing scene were dealt a major blow today. In what appears to be a coordinated international strike, law enforcement authorities from the U.S. and Bulgaria have seized the domain names of Zamunda, ArenaBG, and Zelka. According to 24chasa.bg several people have been detained during the operation.
Five years ago Bulgaria informed the U.S. authorities that it would like to shut down prominent torrent trackers. The Eastern European country specifically asked the U.S. Government for assistance.
Today, it appears that these shutdown plans have finally come to fruition, at least as far as the domain names go. A few hours ago three of the largest torrent trackers became unreachable, directing users to a seizure banner.
“This domain has been seized by Homeland Security Investigations as part of an international law enforcement operation in accordance with a court order issued by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi,” the banner reads.
The listed law enforcement logos are, from left to right:
- U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)
- Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) – United States
- National IPR Coordination Center – United States
- Europol
- GDBOP (General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime) – Bulgaria
- National Investigative Service (НСлС) – Bulgaria
- State Agency for National Security (DANS) – Bulgaria
- Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria – Bulgaria
According to torrentfreak.com the order issued by the Mississippi federal court purportedly compelled the domain name registrars or the domain registries to take action. With domain names linked to American domain intermediaries, this explains why it would be crucial for the U.S. to be involved.
At the time of writing ArenaBG, Zamunda, and Zelka all point to "seizedservers.com" nameservers, which means that the domains are now controlled by the U.S. authorities.
The authorities in Bulgaria previously said that “pre-trial proceedings were opened” against torrent trackers for “intellectual property and tax crimes.” However, it is not clear if today’s actions go beyond the domain seizures.
In the past, Bulgaria has asked the U.S. for assistance to seize the physical servers of Zamunda. However, thus far there is no information about additional enforcement actions. We have also yet to see a press release from the authorities formally confirming the action.
If the current operation is limited to the domain names, the sites will likely switch to alternative ones, as we have seen with other seizures in the past.
