Man Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Distributing Files via Torrent

In a landmark decision, the Single-Member Court of Felonies in Piraeus sentenced a 59-year-old man to five years in prison without suspension and fined him €10,000 for distributing files through torrent. The court also imposed judicial costs of €1,800. This ruling marks the first such conviction in Greece. The defendant was found guilty of involvement in the operation of the website p2planet.net, which offered over 14,000 torrent files for movies, music, and software. The site had 44,342 registered members, highlighting its significant reach. Law enforcement operations by the Economic Crime Unit led to the shutdown of the platform. The court’s decision underscores the severe measures taken against illegal digital content distribution networks. Users who download torrent files are also actively sharing them due to the peer-to-peer nature of BitTorrent technology. Current legislation imposes substantial criminal and administrative penalties, even on end-users employing torrent clients. The legal framework has been tightened, and downloading files via torrent could lead to criminal liability and heavy penalties.