As a result, reporting the finer details becomes a product of overlapping independent sources, none of whom want to be identified, which isn’t ideal. The truth is that some are prepared to talk but everyone is so scared of being caught by the authorities or labeled by fellow members as insecure, that truly verifiable sources are extremely hard to come by. People closely involved in The Scene are naturally secretive, or at least that’s the mandate. However, What took us by surprise was the volume of reports on Tuesday, the claims of panic and fear in ‘The Scene’ globally, and what now appears to be a significant reduction of releases of all kinds from what is usually a prolific and cascading ‘Piracy Pyramid’ system.

Exactly how long was unknown until yesterday when a Swedish prosecutor revealed that it had been underway “for years”. The US case has been ongoing for many months and the investigation certainly longer. Late Tuesday, documents filed under seal in the United States as early as January 2020 were suddenly unsealed, revealing one of the most important piracy-related cases of the past decade.Īs detailed in our report yesterday, a case brought by the US Government resulted in a Grand Jury charging at least three members of several and related top-tier ‘Scene’ release groups – SPARKS, GECKOS, DRONES, ROVERS and SPRINTER – with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and other crimes. This Tuesday, TorrentFreak received more rapid-fire anonymous tips than we have done in recent memory.ĭemanding confidentiality is nothing new but tipsters and sources using anonymous mailers, obscured IP addresses, alongside repeat requests that identities aren’t revealed, usually point to something particularly unusual.Īnd indeed, something unusual was definitely underway.

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