Swiss, Belgians close eDonkey server

Authorities in Belgium and Switzerland on Wednesday arrested the operator of a heavily-trafficked server for the eDonkey P-to-P (peer to peer) network, seizing its hardware, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) said.

The server, known as Razorback2 , indexed 170 million files, "millions" of which were copyrighted movies, software and music, the MPAA said. Belgium authorities confiscated the site's servers at an Internet hosting center near Brussels.

Like other P-to-P networks, eDonkey lets files be traded among users. The MPAA estimated that Razorback2 accommodated up to 1.3 million users simultaneously.

Razorback2's operator was arrested at his home in Switzerland, the MPAA said.

In a statement, the MPAA said the action will slow access to illegal material online while stemming "offensive" content including child pornography, bomb-making instructions and terrorist training videos.

In September 2005, the president of the company that created eDonkey software, Sam Yagan, predicted that legal pressures will force P-to-P networks to change their service to models similar to iTunes and Napster, which sell content online in accordance with copyright laws. Yagan's company is MetaMachine Inc.

A survey by CacheLogic Ltd. released in August 2005 found eDonkey surpassed BitTorrent Inc. as the largest P-to-P file-trading network. The application consumed more bandwidth than any other on the Internet, the survey said.