Poland: Nine people held by police for translating movies
[ Thursday, 17 May 2007, michuk ]
Nine people involved in a community portal Napisy.org have been held for questioning by Polish police forces. The possible accusation is publishing illegal translations of foreign movies.
Napisy.org was the most popular Polish portal where users (and there are over 600 thousands active users) were free to submit translated subtitles for popular movies (mostly from English to Polish, but not only). Popular video players could be then used to display the subtitles when playing a movie (usually a DVD-rip).
The website (already shut down) was located on German servers. Zbigniew Urbanski from the Polish National Police informed that the police action was supported by German colleagues and the Polish Foundation for protecting Audio-Video content (connected with The Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry, a Polish RIAA/MPAA-like organization):
"The people held for questioning are mostly the people who were involved in translating the movies. They were stopped in different places all over the country: in Slask (Silesia), Podlasie (Podlachia), Krakow (Cracow) and Szczecin (Stettin). Among the arrested was the service administrator from Zabrze. The case is evolving. Further actions are coming."
During the proceedings, 10 PCs and 7 laptops have been secured by the Police, together with about 2000 CDs containing (probably) illegally copied movies and PC software.
According to Polish copyright law any “processing” of others’ content including translating is prohibited without permission. The people held (aged 20 - 30) were questioned on Wednesday and Thursday and then allowed to leave. In case of being accused of illegal publishing of copyrighted material, they can spend in jail up to 2 years (in the worst case).
Sources: Gazeta.pl, idg.pl, Police [in Polish]
