Joint raids by police in Belgium and Switzerland have shut down a popular file-sharing server. The Razorback2 server was part of the Edonkey file-sharing network and was used by a third of the system's users. The server held an index of 170 million pirated files, said the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
In the raids, the server's Swiss owner was arrested and the Razorback2 machines were seized from a Brussels-based hosting firm.
It is unclear what effect the shutting down of the Razorback2 server will have on overall file-sharing figures. Studies of the different file-sharing networks show that the numbers of people using Edonkey is on the increase. It has become the dominant network in South Korea, Italy, Germany and Spain. However notes posted on discussion groups by Edonkey users following the raid show that the number of people on the Edonkey network was back to normal a few hours after the server was shut down.
The following raids and shutdowns made many file-sharers simply move to other networks such as BitTorrent or have turned to older systems such as Usenet.
Source: BBC News

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Razorback is Down