March 18, 2005 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- According to reports, fifty file-sharing hubs in Australia shut down this week following the music industry's raid on Internet services and Web hosting provider Swiftel Communications (swiftel.net) for alleged copyright infringement issues.
Swiftel, which allegedly owns and operates infrastructure hosting Web pages that employ the BitTorrent file-sharing software, was ordered on Wednesday by the Federal Magistrates' Court to close down all sites with copyright-infringing mateiral.
Fifty of the 63 Web sites which fell within MIPI's "investigative threshold" have reportedly shut down. The 13 remaining hubs have been warned to comply or face court action.
Music industry piracy investigations general manager Michael Speck said in reports that anti-piracy unit's computer forensic experts discovered in a recent survey that the number of active file-sharing hubs has drastically reduced, suggesting that the legal action against Swiftel are getting through to hub owners. According to reports, there has also been a significant decline in the number of Australian users accessing the allegedly illegal hubs.
Speck says the 13 reamining hubs they will not be given any further warning.
