1990: Founded in Sofia, Bulgaria 1996: Starts offering Internet access services 1998: Renamed to ProLink Ltd. 2001: Acquired by Spectrum Net 2003: Bulgaria's largest dial-up Internet Service Provider 2003: Operates the most popular free web hosting service in the country June 2003: FREE.Techno-Link.com hosts 110,000+ audio files, 25,000+ video files and thousands of software products, uploaded by almost 11,000 users

ProLink, formerly known as Techno-Link, was acquired by Bulgaria's largest Internet Service Provider (ISP), Spectrum Net (SPNET), in late 2001. Before SPNET's takeover, ProLink had, by far, the biggest dial-up user base in the country.

In November 2000, Austrian ISP europroNET gained a majority stake in Spectrum Net and commenced a wide-ranging expansion campaign, swallowing local Internet providers. Today, ProLink is part of the europroNET-owned company and continues to have the most extensive dial-up user community in Bulgaria.

Pioneering large-scale file hosting

ProLink operates Bulgaria's most popular web hosting service, FREE.Techno-Link.com. Launched in the late 1990s, it now offers each user 1,000 megabytes of web space with virtually no restrictions on permitted content. Over the years, the service has amassed gigantic piles of information, ranging from regular web sites to illegally stored music, movies and software. Most of the hundreds of thousands of files, located on Techno-Link's servers, are MP3s (nearly 110,000), movies (in the hundreds) and thousands of games and software applications.

Conducing to the ease of data distribution, a number of additional services help Techno-Link's users search the server's directories and communicate with each other. Search engines allow running of highly-customizable queries, specifying file sizes or even audio quality. A sophisticated forum system provides for message posting, conveniently separated in specialized discussions, such as "MP3 Requests" or "Movie Links" -- a mechanism often used for instant file exchange, eliminating the hindering delays of search engine indexing. Techno-Link's forums are always buzzing with activity, whether users are requesting new files or uploaders are swiftly meeting their wishes.

To ensure appropriate financial interest from the service, FREE.Techno-Link.com is available to Bulgarian users only, banning expensive international traffic and offering low-cost domestic access. The service's popularity has turned into a huge incentive for new customers. ProLink clients are offered high-speed access to an extraordinarily extensive database of free music, movies and software at the cost of a small monthly Internet fee. On the other hand, the service's total invisibility to the outside world has evaded the attention of international organizations fighting for the protection of intellectual property.

Today, FREE.Techno-Link.com has a community of nearly 11,000 web space users and many times more download fans. Regular visitors can find and quickly download virtually anything -- from music by popular Bulgarian artists to the latest from rapper 50 Cent; from the newest episode of "Friends" to Oscar-winning movie "Chicago"; from Microsoft Windows XP to Adobe Photoshop 7. Major uploaders can request additional space and are frequently awarded with unlimited web quotas.

According to ProLink's Terms of Service, the company has "no obligation and objective capability to control" user information and "is not responsible for potentially caused [...] damages." And despite the relatively good responsiveness by Techno-Link to requests for cooperation with various industry groups and law enforcement agencies, the company remains flagrantly aware of the stored content's legality.