eMule Paradise

» see emule-paradise.com as it lived, on the wayback machine

~ the last words ~

I knew eMule the program. It was part of the standard kit once TTNet broadband arrived during my university years in Turkey. What I never had a use for was the layer France built on top of it: websites that sorted the network's files into a catalog of films dubbed or subtitled in French, every entry one click away from the client. One of the biggest of those was eMule Paradise.

Vincent Valade started it in 2004. Next INpact puts his age at 18 at the time, and he was 29 at the trial of 2015. The oldest capture in the Wayback Machine, from 17 March 2005, carries the line "Le meilleur de l'actu p2p et des DivX de QUALITES" and claims 1,084 gigabytes of material on offer. The download menu ran from films and TV series down to manga, and the site menu above it had a TV guide and a page on burning discs.

The same page spelled out the legal theory. "eMule-Paradise répertorie uniquement des liens vers des fichiers disponibles sur le réseau P2P et n'héberge aucun fichier Divx ou autres," it said, and then told visitors that they had to own the original on DVD or VHS before downloading anything. Underneath was an apology for the pop-up ad, on the grounds that the site was still trying to get itself known.

It got known. The prosecution later counted 300,000 visitors a day across 2005 and 2006 and 7,113 films made available, and investigators estimated 6.1 million files exchanged. Advertising was handled by an agency called Net Avenir, whose name appeared on the front page. Press reports of the trial put the revenue at 416,000 to 418,000 euros, a figure that includes an adult site run alongside. A forum opened on 4 April 2006. Nine months later the site closed.

~ the record ~

~ two custodies ~

On 16 September 2006 a front-page post announced that an administrator had been arrested and released. The hours of questioning pointed to a trial some months away, it said, with the main administrator facing fines in the tens of thousands of euros. The post asked the community for support, and the menu of the December 2006 capture carries a "Soutenez eMP" link. Then on 5 January 2007 at 20:02 Valade posted under his first name that he was closing the site "jusqu'à nouvel ordre". The case had passed from the BEFTI, the Paris police unit for computer crime, to another brigade, and he had just come out of 48 hours in custody followed by an appearance before an investigating judge. "J'espère sincèrement que cette fermeture ne sera pas définitive," he wrote. Fifty-three minutes later he posted new year wishes to the community. The front page carried on as a notice board, with a post on 26 August 2007 attacking Universal, one of the plaintiffs, and by November 2007 the domain forwarded to a registrar's suspension page.

~ eight years to a verdict ~

French coverage of the trial gives the closing year as 2006, the last year of the offenses charged, while the site's own post is dated 5 January 2007. ActuaLitté reported a trial opening on 31 January 2011 with video publishers asking for 6 million euros. The case was in front of the Paris criminal court again on Monday 9 February 2015, now with six defendants, Net Avenir among them. The prosecution could ask for up to three years and a 300,000 euro fine. The civil parties, Pathé and Universal among them, wanted 8 million. The tax office had its own claim of 400,000 to 500,000 euros over income moved to accounts abroad, in Cyprus by every account and in Estonia or Belize depending on the reporter. Valade's line to the judges was "Je ne faisais qu'informer, je suis juste un relayeur."

The verdict came on 12 May 2015. Valade got 14 months suspended and lost his Porsche Cayenne, which Next INpact says he had bought for 70,000 euros in cash. Net Avenir was fined 50,000 euros and its sales director of the time got eight months suspended. The damages for all defendants came to about 45,000 euros. In October 2016 the Paris court of appeal raised the civil damages to 400,000 euros. His lawyer called it "un résultat très décevant" and filed an appeal to the Cour de cassation.

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