Denmark’s Rights Alliance reports that Asgaard and ShareUniversity – the last two pirate services based within Denmark – have closed down.
When Danish authorities shut down the pirate sites DanishBits and NordicBits ** in October, many of their users migrated to Asgaard and ShareUniversity. Asgaard alone had more than 1.5 million site visits in November 2020, to access its store of more than 18,000 films, books and news articles.
However, Aasgard shut down in late December, followed by ShareUniversity the next day. Both of them ended their operations voluntarily.
** Note added (December 2022): Press releases by SØIK and Rights Alliance referred to an entity called DanishBits in press releases in 2022 and prior. Starting later in 2022, it has been referred to as DanishBytes.
Read the Rights Alliance press release (Translated from Danish to English by Google Translate)
Why this matters
“We have worked hard to get rid of illegal services rooted in Denmark. That it is now a reality that for the first time there are no Danish illegal services, is the fruit of more than 10 years of dedicated work and a huge victory for the Danish rights holders,” said Maria Fredenslund, the director of the Rights Alliance.
However, it still means that pirate services are available to consumers there – just that the remaining available services are based outside of Danish borders.