According to Der Spiegel magazine, following the arrests, police are now saying that the tracks were obtained by infecting the computers of record producer's computers using trojans and downloading "thousands" of unreleased songs by music artists such as Lady Gaga and Mariah Carey.
German police are also quoted as saying they are concerned that the arrested pair are part of a much wider hacking ring operating in Europe, with as many as 100 IT professionals involved.
Der Spiegel claims that police documents suggest the gang had been working for three years with a modus operandi that is still largely unknown.
The latest issue of New magazine, meanwhile, claims that FBI officials are now working with German police on the investigation and that an alleged hacker – Christian M. – "has confessed his role to cops, and told them at least 100 young hackers in Germany are involved."
"A secretive website where cyber-crooks traded songs has since been shut down by officials in the US – but a new one, based on the island group of Tonga in the South Pacific, has now been launched", says the magazine.