Fri, Feb 10 2012
Photo: Nikolay Doychinov
Police found 25 terabyte of illegal content and more than 10 000 pirated disks, Bulgarian-language daily Standard reported.
Relaxing copyright laws or charging for downloading is better than the ongoing crusade against so-called internet piracy, Veni Markovski says
BTK sent out a self-congratulatory media statement after receiving an award for its IP-policy. Its business model, however, is hugely indebted to Bulgaria's piracy industry.
In the wake of European Union criticism of Bulgaria's police and judiciary, Dutch anti-piracy organisation BREIN (brain) is allegedly pressuring to close so-called torrent websites in the country, local media reported, quoting a publication on website torrentfreak.com. A specialised department of the Bulgarian police has tracked down the owners and administrators of several of the larger P2P websites in the country, including those that were hosted elsewhere.
Piracy, telecommunications reform, the European Heritage Label project and the illegal trafficking of objects of cultural significance were among the main topics discussed at an informal meeting of European Union-country cultural ministers in Versailles, France, on July 21 and 22. Bulgaria was represented by its minister of culture, the actor Stefan Danailov; the gathering was presided over by French culture minister Christine Albanel.
Bulgaria has been removed from the intellectual property piracy watchlist of the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) mainly due to attempts of law enforcement agencies to stem intellectual property theft, IIPA wrote in its report titled Special 301 Recommendations. Bulgaria was now moved to the "special mention" category alongside Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Hong Cong, Singapore, Jordan and New Zealand. Countries within this category are subject to close scrutiny and unless they make headway in curbing piracy they return to the watch list.
Works will be reviewed by a group of judges, and winners will receive certificates and prizes.
Seven arrested, including ‘The Squirrel’ who was found in possession of 10 00 euro, Interior Ministry says. Mobile phones, computer equipment and drug paraphernalia seized.
Maximum temperatures across the country will remain mostly below zero.
The first tremor was at about 12.34am, followed by another three minutes later. Their epicentres were located between the towns of Radnevo and Topolovgrad.
There was no risk of blackouts caused by insufficient power supply, Economy Minister Traicho Traikov told Bulgarian National Radio.