P2Planet Operator Gets 5-Year Sentence in Greece’s First Ever Torrent Conviction

In Greece, an operator of a torrent side was sentenced to a prison sentence for the first time. The 59 -year -old has to pay a penalty for five years and 10,000 euros – although his platform P2Planet.net has been closed for over a decade.

First judgment of this kind in Greece

In a sensational judgment, a court in Greece sentenced the operator of a Bittorrent platform to a prison sentence. An appellate court for crimes in Piraeus imposed a five-year prison sentence against a 59-year-old man and a fine of 10,000 euros.

In addition, the convict must bear the court costs. Particularly noteworthy: The court rejected a suspensive effect of the appeal, so that the man was taken off in handcuffs immediately after the verdict. According to reports of Greek media, it is the first conviction of this kind in Greece for illegal activities in connection with data distributed via Bittorrent.

Ten years until the verdict

The case has an unusual peculiarity: The 59-year-old defendant was convicted of operating the private torrent page P2Planet.net, which, however, announced her closure more than a decade ago. How Torrent freak Citing the Greek side Digitaltvinfo reported, in June 2014 a brief message was published on social media that P2Planet was “unfortunately closed”.

According to information that was published in connection with the current judgment in the media, the tracker had 44,342 registered members and managed 14,000 torrents, mainly for films, TV programs and music. The users of the page invited content with the Torrent client Azureus, which is known today under the name Vuze and received the last update in 2017. The Greek economic police and the cybercrime unit carried out the operation to close the website.

Shrecking effect

The Greek authorities apparently rely on a zero tolerance policy towards digital piracy. The hard procedure against the operator of P2Planet.net should underline the determination of the authorities, but one can certainly ask yourself whether it is only partially acted with measure here. Critics object that the long period of proceedings and the immediate detention could be legally problematic despite the ongoing appeal. In addition, the question arises whether a five-year prison sentence for the operation of a torrent side is proportionate, especially if it has been closed for a decade.