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Music blog RnBXclusive shut down by Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency

Music blog RnBXclusive shut down by Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency

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UK music blog RnBXclusive has been shut down by the Serious Organised Crime Agency. The site's owners have been charged with fraud and SOCA is threatening users with up to ten years in prison.

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soca rnbxclusive 1020
soca rnbxclusive 1020

Great Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency shut down music site RnBXclusive.com yesterday and arrested its owners for fraud. The site used to host music news and commentary in addition to links to mixtape and album downloads, but its landing page has now been replaced with a chilling SOCA warning banner. The "new" site says that RnBXclusive's owners have been arrested and that SOCA knows your IP address and what OS you're running. The banner ends with a plea not to illegally download music, reminding users of the harm it does to young artists' careers:

"As a result of illegal downloads young, emerging artists may have had their careers damaged. If you have illegally downloaded music you will have damaged the future of the music industry."

The move fits in with an overall trend of stiffer law enforcement against piracy around the globe, following the closure of longtime torrent site BTJunkie last week, increased legal pressure on The Pirate Bay, and of course the drama surrounding Megaupload. Meanwhile, in the UK specificaly, SOCA has requested that Nominet — which handles .co.uk domains — be given power to fast-track domain takedowns. Although the full details behind SOCA's takedown of RnBXclusive haven't been made clear yet, this is likely only the beginning of a new anti-piracy push by the agency.