Slashdot Mirror
Belgian ISP Scores Victory In Landmark P2P Case
secmartin writes "Belgian ISP Scarlet scored an important victory in the first major European test of copyright law. The interim decision forcing them to block transfers of copyrighted materials via P2P has been reversed, because the judge agreed with Scarlet that the measures the Belgian RIAA proposed to implement proved to be ineffective. A final decision is expected next year."
In this day and age, that is an epic victory to be sung by bards for all of eternity.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
RTFA, this is not RIAA, this is SABAM (Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers).
I'm afraid you've been misinformed.
There's no real victory here. At least, not what we on Slashdot would call a victory. The judgement still stands. The only thing that's been revoked is the penalty of 2500 euro per day the ISP does not actively block illegal downloads on its network.
The judge explicitly asked Scarlet to keep looking for "a technical solution to suit the decision of the court".
The final decision (and our last chance at a real victory) is scheduled for October 2009.
You're not very familiar with Sabam, are you? They've been acting "all American" for as long as I can remember.
Think about it, the RIAA is made up of the world's most powerful record labels. They may have registered different names, but they're the same beast underneath. :)
Yes and no. Of course the RIAA and its Belgian "counterpart" SABAM are strongly linked through their members, but they're not just "the RIAA registering under a different name". SABAM was founded in 1922, and represents not only the recording industry (let alone only the US one), but also independent authors, composers, etc. In fact, one of my grandfathers - who was a composer - was one of the founding members. The problem is that in reality the small guys have no say whatsoever in this game, be they producers (with which I mean: authors & performers) or consumers of music. Only big money rules and that usually is in the hands of people who themselves don't contribute anything culturally substantial at all.
Linux user since early January 1992.
Oh man, don't get me starting about SABAM. I compose my own music for websites (using garagaband!) and EVERY TIME i get a letter from them asking me what source/author i used so they can bill me. I really really really hate them.