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Dutch Portal Cleared of Copyright Infringement

CRCates writes "A Dutch court in Haarlem has cleared Techno Design, the operator of Zoekmp3.nl, a music search engine portal, of copyright infringement. The case was launched by BREIN, the Dutch entertainment industry's anti-piracy group. The court ruled that providing links to an MP3 file does not constitute disclosure or publication of contents under Dutch copyright law."

13 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Napster? by 0x0d0a · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So are services that merely provide indexing and contact data for other systems legal under Dutch law?

    Napster, for one? Sharereactor, etc?

  2. Re:You have to dig pretty deep... by c0dedude · · Score: 4, Insightful

    By that logic the yellow pages is guilty of all gun crime, because they tell you where to get guns.

    --
    Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
  3. Good news for Dutch hosts by Bill_Royle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sounds like Dutch webhosts are the most likely now to be the hosts for copyrighted mp3 sites, provided the mp3 files are held elsewhere. After all, if a website's having to change it's DNS every few weeks as it is booted from one host to the other, it makes sense to just host in a safe haven.

    Still, downloading Mp3's via links sounds so inefficient!

  4. Re:You have to dig pretty deep... by Scarblac · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You have to dig pretty deep in the law books to find that this is legal...

    Actually, that is daft. It is legal because it is not in the law books at all. It's a good thing the books don't list the finite list of things that are allowed, right?

    --
    I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
  5. google media search? by thepoopman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    so will google be adding audio and video searches now that it can back itself up with a court ruling (albeit dutch)?

  6. Not likely by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    "Sounds like Dutch webhosts are the most likely now to be the hosts for copyrighted mp3 sites"

    Not likely, the key here was there was no link between the site indexing the MP3s and the sites infringing copyright. If there was then it would have been a conspiracy.

    The scenario you describe sounds like the site and the provider of the MP3s are the same person/same group of people (even if they're not stored on the same site). In that case they could be sued as an active party to the actual infringement.

  7. Re:Good news for Google! by pe1rxq · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Actually drug figures here (The Netherlands) are lower than most other european countries and certainly lower than in the US. (Both for hard and soft drugs)

    Jeroen

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  8. Re:But they didnt ask you by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Insightful
    If you start declaring that links to *other* places are illegal, watch the very fabric of the net collapse.

    It's been tried. DeCSS links, Scientology and others taking slaps at Google for providing links, etc.

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  9. Re:You have to dig pretty deep... by Citizen+of+Earth · · Score: 2, Insightful

    By that logic the yellow pages is guilty of all gun crime, because they tell you where to get guns.

    Maybe it's more like gun manufacturers, since they also put you 'one click' away from committing a crime.

  10. Re:Waiting for... by benna · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think the legal case can be made that one has a right to do this under the first amendment as well as for other reasons. For one, you could argue that you arr not really "sharing" the files. You just put them on YOUR computer for YOUR personal use. If someone happens to download them due to bad security...oh well. But besides that it really is a free speech issue. How can the government tell someone what electric pulses are allowd to come out of their computer. And finally my favorite arguement. The RIAA could always come up with a rule that would turn ANY file into a song. All they would have to do is come up with a special codec for that file to match that song. When you think about it for a song to be illegal the codec must be recognized. But then who's to say what is recognized and what is not? This is a slippery slope.

    --
    "It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
  11. Re:Good news for Google! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
    and the best beers in the world

    Imported from Belgium, of course.
  12. Re:Good news for Google! by DAldredge · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That is correct.

    I agree with it.

    And till the UN gets off it's ass and does something about the slavery going on TODAY in parts of africa they have no moral standing in my book.

  13. Re:But they didnt ask you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    You sound like the son of a lawyer who keeps hearing legal terms and has no idea what they really mean. Fair Use has nothing to do with this!