Global recording industry group IFPI, in conjunction with its Brazilian counterpart Pro-Música Brasil, has hailed the successful shutdown of a prominent illegal file-sharing platform in Brazil.
Cyber Gaeco, a special cybercrime unit under the São Paulo’s prosecutor’s office, took down FileWarez.tv following calls from IFPI and the Brazilian anti-piracy body APDIF.
IFPI on Wednesday (October 25) said FileWarez was “the most established” illegal file-sharing forum in Brazil. It serves as an avenue for the illegal distribution of music content. At its peak, the platform boasted over 118,000 registered users, with no less than 24,000 actively engaging on a monthly basis.
Commenting on the news, Melissa Morgia, Director of Global Content Protection and Enforcement, IFPI, said: “We congratulate Cyber Gaeco on their action. The site operated with no regard for the rights of music creators and has undermined the legal marketplace in Brazil. This is an important action in the continuing fight against piracy in the country.”
Paulo Rosa, President of Pro-Música Brasil, added: “We are very grateful to the Cyber Gaeco unit of the Prosecutor´s office of São Paulo, for its continuous and successful work against music piracy.”
The shutdown of FileWarez came over a year after IFPI, Pro-Musica Brasil and Brazilian law enforcement started coordinating with US and UK authorities on what the IFPI dubbed as a “substantial series of actions” targeting infringing services online.
“The site operated with no regard for the rights of music creators and has undermined the legal marketplace in Brazil. This is an important action in the continuing fight against piracy in the country.”
Melissa Morgia, IFPI
At the time, IFPI said the initiative, called ‘Operation 404’, will take aim at over 400 infringing music apps that have collectively generated more than 10 million downloads.
IFPI and Pro-Música Brasil also partnered in 2021 to take down streaming manipulation services in Brazil that create artificial “plays” on digital music streaming services that do not represent genuine listening. That measure came less than a year after 14 sites were forced to stop offering “fake stream” services in Brazil.
Outside Brazil, the IFPI and BVMI, the recorded music body in Germany, secured victory against Germany-based streaming manipulation service SP-Onlinepromotion.com earlier this month.
Authorities in Germany ordered the shutdown of that website, and its operators are now legally prohibited from offering manipulation services in the future.
“We are very grateful to the Cyber Gaeco unit of the Prosecutor´s office of São Paulo, for its continuous and successful work against music piracy.”
Paulo Rosa, Pro-Música Brasil
IFPI has consistently worked with its counterparts around the globe in targeting online piracy, which remains a threat to the music industry.
Back in April, the IFPI and the BVMI successfully took down stream-ripping software YouTube-DL, with the Hamburg Regional Court issuing an injunction against the individual hosting the website.
In January, IFPI, together with IMI, the representative organization for music labels in India, carried out what they hailed as the first-ever successful effort to restrict stream-ripping sites in the country.
In addition to the IFPI, other players in the music industry have also beefed up efforts in clamping down on piracy. In June, a global task force called Music Fights Fraud was formed by Spotify, Amazon Music, CD Baby and its parent company Downtown, TuneCore and its parent company Believe, DistroKid, EMPIRE and others to target streaming fraud and streaming manipulation across digital streaming services.
Music Business Worldwide
