Greece Torrenting: 5-Year Sentence for Site Operator
- A 59-year-old man in Greece has been sentenced to five years in prison and fined €10,000, plus €1,800 in court fines, for operating the torrent site P2Planet from...
- The Single-member Criminal Court of Appeal of Piraeus upheld the original charges against the man,rejecting his appeal.
- The man was initially arrested in 2014 after a raid by the Cyber Crime Unit of the Greek police.Authorities confiscated a hard drive and confirmed his administrative access...
A Greek man faces a five-year prison sentance and hefty fines for operating the P2Planet torrent site, a stark warning in the battle against online piracy. Authorities arrested the man in 2014 following a raid, with the site hosting over 14,000 torrent file links. The court’s decision, rejecting his appeal, underscores Greece’s tough stance on torrenting and content distribution. The site, active from 2011 to 2014, saw thousands of users and faced challenges, including DDoS attacks. This conviction, happening in the present day, is a signal for a crackdown on digital piracy. News Directory 3 is following this and similar cases. Discover what’s next as this unfolds.
Greek Man Gets Prison for Decade-old Torrenting
Updated June 22, 2025
A 59-year-old man in Greece has been sentenced to five years in prison and fined €10,000, plus €1,800 in court fines, for operating the torrent site P2Planet from 2011 to 2014. The site contained more than 14,000 torrent file links, leading to his arrest and conviction for online piracy.
The Single-member Criminal Court of Appeal of Piraeus upheld the original charges against the man,rejecting his appeal. He was immediately taken into custody after the court decided his appeal would not suspend his sentence, a decision that reportedly caused an uproar in the courtroom.
The man was initially arrested in 2014 after a raid by the Cyber Crime Unit of the Greek police.Authorities confiscated a hard drive and confirmed his administrative access to p2planet.net. Reports indicate the site had over 44,000 registered users who accessed and shared the torrent files.
At its peak in 2014, P2Planet faced distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. The site was eventually hacked, and its database leaked online, which likely aided police in their investigation and arrest.
It remains unclear if the man was incarcerated during his appeals process. However, the conviction underscores Greece’s stricter stance against torrenting and online piracy. Another similar five-year sentence was recently issued in Larissa, possibly setting a precedent for future cases.
The legal basis for the conviction stems from the peer-to-peer nature of torrenting. By “seeding” files, users distribute illegal materials, a key factor in the greek court’s decision. This contrasts wiht simply downloading files,which has been argued as a defense in other contexts,such as Meta’s use of copyrighted material for AI training.
what’s next
This case signals a continued crackdown on online piracy and torrenting in greece, potentially impacting how similar cases are prosecuted in the future. The severity of the sentence highlights the risks associated with operating torrent sites, even years after their closure.