Today EliteTorrents.org, ET, were shutdown by a joint operation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, both under the department of Homeland Security.

The operation was known as Operation D-Elite and involved the execution of 10 search warrents across the Unites States and the take over of the EliteTorrents server. Operation D-Elite targeted the administrators and "first providers" or suppliers of copyrighted content to the Elite Torrents network. Per the FBI press release, "The content selection available on the Elite Torrents network was virtually unlimited and often included illegal copies of copyrighted works before they were available in retail stores or movie theatres.

For example, the final entry in the Star Wars series, "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," was available for downloading on the network more than six hours before it was first shown in theatres. In the next 24 hours, it was downloaded more than 10,000 times." ET was a ratio based membership torrent site that often had 0day releases, and in the case of Star Wars Episode III, PRE-0day releases, which may have ultimetaly led to their being targeted and their shutdown. Following today's crackdown another ratio based membership torrent site removed themselves with the following message on their site, "Thanks for being a part of bit-ance.net, your data has disapeared and so have we

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News-Source: http://elitetorrents.org & http://www.ice.gov