German police slay Internet 'Dragon'

Pirates' server is shut down

By ED MEZA

BERLIN -- Police in Frankfurt on Wednesday busted an illegal film and software server offering pirated copies of 200 films including "I, Robot," the day before its German premiere.

Working with Frankfurt prosecutors and the German Federation Against Copyright Theft (GVU) -- an affiliate of the Motion Picture Assn. of America -- police located and removed the server, called Dragon, from the Internet.

While authorities continue their investigation, the GVU said the server, which was connected to the Internet through Frankfurt's Johann Wolfgang Goethe U., served three of the most active release groups, Flatline, Titans of Entertainment and Block Buster Production, which are responsible for 70% of illegal copies of current films on the Internet.

The bust follows recent legal action against a cinema in the German city of Landau after Constantin Film, distributor of Michael Herbig's box office hit "(T)Raumschiff Surprise," traced a bootlegged version of the sci-fi spoof to the exhib.

Thanks to intense security measures and encoding and documenting of all original prints, Constantin has been able to prevent the production of pirated copies of "(T)Raumschiff" from original material.