French authoring rights society SACEM has acknowledged playing an "important role" in the demise of music torrent site What.CD, which shut down on Thursday following a nine-year run as one the web's most sophisticated sources of music piracy.
SACEM confirms with Billboard that on Thursday (Nov. 17), a French cybercrime police unit confiscated 12 servers from the popular torrent tracker. "The police action follows investigative work carried out by SACEM over the course of more than two years, as part of its anti-piracy activities," the group says.
According to the rights group, What.CD's closure "puts an ends to activities estimated to cost music creators €41 million," or roughly $43 million.