A criminal case has been opened in Russia against the creators of a torrent tracker.

A criminal case has been opened against the creators of the torrent tracker Interfilm.ru for copyright infringement. Furthermore, law enforcement agencies have conducted searches of the torrent tracker's most active users, who may also face charges.

The interfilm.ru service was hosted on the servers of a Dutch hosting company. The site offered numerous films that had not yet been officially released in Russia. Films were available on the site long before they appeared in theaters.

The resource's authors purchased copies of films from residents of foreign countries, translated them themselves, and posted them on their website, in some cases, the morning after the premiere.

Access to the service required a small payment in electronic currency. Law enforcement estimated the losses from the resource's creators at 38.7 billion rubles.

The service was shut down last year, but its owners opened two mirror sites on other domain names.

The service's creators face up to 6 years in prison and a fine of up to 500,000 rubles.