The infamous DVD ripper aXXo has apparently been arrested today by police on the grounds of mass video piracy. The popular, dubbed 'Internet Ledgend' aXXo's arrest follows closing down of torrent sites such as oink.com, although not related this trend of action seems to be spreading to individual piraters.
Downloading via torrent programs such as bittorrent and utorrent are the latest most popular way to download full length films and music albums for free. The sites which offer these downloads are being hunted by the authorities and other law enforcement agencies. These sites however do not store any of this material it is stored on users computers and site simply supplies the link to enable someone to link with the material through one or several sources.
aXXo who's real identity has not yet been revealed, and rumors of why his name has not been revealed range from him being a minor so the authorities can not release his name to the fact that the authorities don't want him to gain 'kudos' for supplying the world with so many apparently great quality movie downloads.
However in a interview with him carried out by Torrent Freak earlier this year he says "When I was about 15 or 16 I got into backing up my old DVD’s. History from there." so people dismiss the claim he is a minor.
The charges against him will be for mass piracy and most likely distribution of pirated video. Is this a sad day for the internet? Yes, Is it a sad day for the film industry? No.
