Ukrainian police officers have stopped the activity of well-known file hosting service ex.ua for violations of intellectual property rights, the media liaisons office of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry reported on Tuesday.
Some 200 servers with a total volume of illegal content over 6,000 terabytes were seized during searches conducted at the office and data centers of the online file storage provider.
"A criminal case was opened under Part 2, Article 176 of the Criminal Code, which foresees liability for breaches of copyright and related rights, after applications were submitted to the Interior Ministry from the official representatives of the world’s leading software companies – international corporations Adobe Systems Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Graphisoft Inc. etc., whose software products have long been illegally distributed through the Web site ex.ua," reads the statement.
The Interior Ministry noted that it had been found that the administration of the Web site, despite the legitimate demands of rights holders and the provisions of the Ukrainian law on copyright and related rights, had provided the large-scale distribution in the state and abroad of illegal content, including "hundreds of thousands of audiovisual works, phonograms, videograms and computer programs."
Police officers learned that the administration of the file hosting service had been headed by a Latvian citizen. Sixteen employees of the company’s office are currently being questioned, whereas the equipment seized by police officers has been sent for examination.
The number of people to be called to account as part of this criminal case will be clear after the necessary investigatory and legal proceedings are carried out.
The article of the Criminal Code, under which the criminal case was opened, foresees imprisonment of up to five years, along with the confiscation of copies of works and equipment.
