Zamunda, ArenaBG, and Zelka seized by US over pirated movies and video games

The US has seized three well-known and widely visited piracy sites that reportedly distributed bootleg copies of movies, TV shows, and video games primarily to users in Europe.

To those attempting to access, the domains now show a seizure notice accusing them of criminal copyright infringement.

Top gaming and movie piracy sites seized by US

The blocked sites are as follows: Zamunda.net, ArenaBG.com, and Zelka.org

The US federal officials noted that these sites were among the largest piracy platforms operating within the European Union. While they were run from Bulgaria, their domains were registered in the US, which allowed the US Department of Justice to take them down.

According to the agency: "The three domains receive tens of millions of visits a year, offer thousands of infringed works, and result in millions of downloads, with a retail value totalling millions of dollars."

The platforms facilitated the circulation of illegal copies via torrents. The most notable among the three is Zamunda.net, said to be ranked 25 among the most visited websites in Bulgaria, PCMag reported, citing a report by TorrentFreak.

The Justice Department carried out the shutdown with the help of Bulgarian authorities, who collaborated with US investigators to conduct “searches and seizures at 30 addresses across the country.”

This operation also led to the confiscation of “numerous computer configurations, equipment, and other electronic evidence” linked to intellectual property crimes, including the identification of individuals managing the torrent trackers for these domains.

Bulgarian officials also sought US assistance back in 2020 to shut down Zamunda and ArenaBG due to their reliance on US internet services.

While the current takedown of Zamunda, ArenaBG, and Zelka appears to have hindered their online presence as well as operations, users reportedly caught an alternative domain, Zamunda.se, which is still operational.