EDonkey Servers Shut Down by IFPI, Local Authorities

ne third of the remaining 3 million or so users of the eDonkey file sharing network have been knocked off of that network following the closure of supernode servers in France, the Netherlands, and, most recently, in Germany following court injunctions issued in five German cities. The servers were apparently taken offline (or by representatives of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and local authorities.

Jeremy Banks, Head of IFPI's global Internet Anti-Piracy Unit, said,

"These actions show the reach of the recording industry's internetanti-piracy operation. IFPI has an expert team which traces the originof illegal content on the internet and works with law enforcementagencies to get copyright-infringing content off the internet."

The creators of the eDonkey2000 client settled with the RIAA for $30 million in September of 2006, but the network has continued to operate in part due to the availability of an open-source version of that client called eMule.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that far more people currently use gnutella or Bit Torrent networks to share files, but if whoever is currently running the eDonkey network were to install additional supernode servers in other places, the network could return to its previous capacity.

(via digitalmusicnews)