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Belgian ISP Scores Victory In Landmark P2P Case

Posted by timothy on from the you-can't-make-us-do-that dept.

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."

14 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. Not a victory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Thats not a landmark victory, thats a "your honor their idiots their idea doesn't work" "your right don't waste your time."

    All they got there was a "That doesn't work" not a "you can't do that"

    1. Re:Not a victory by Kjella · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Thats not a landmark victory, thats a "your honor their idiots their idea doesn't work" "your right don't waste your time."

      All they got there was a "That doesn't work" not a "you can't do that"

      Don't abuse the troll mod, this isn't trolling. After reading the TFA I tend to agree as it says "The court has now ruled in favor of Scarlet, staying the fine until the final ruling in this case which is expected about a year from now." Basicly, they haven't been able to make the filtering work and since they've been at it for years I doubt they will a year from now either, but this ruling doesn't say they need not implement a filtering system, only that they won't be fined until there's a filtering system that works. I don't think one can be made to work, but who knows what a judge might decide next year - "This is a POS but it's better than nothing"? A good ruling yes, but the last word has not been said.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  2. Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I hope "ISP" means waffles and "P2P" means syrup!

  3. Belgian RIAA by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We're going to need a better term than
    "[name of country that is not America] RIAA"
    Since the last "A" stands for America

    I propose RIA* and MPA*
    [/Serious]

    Collectively, they can be referred to as **A*

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
    1. Re:Belgian RIAA by Aerynvala · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I vote we call them the Borg. They have that whole assimilation/destruction, adherence to bland uniformity in common.

      --
      http://transformativeworks.org/
    2. Re:Belgian RIAA by ethana2 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I call them the Music and Film Industry Associations. Simple and to the point. MaFIA.

    3. Re:Belgian RIAA by jnnnnn · · Score: 5, Funny

      Let's just go with ****. After all, every time I hear about them I want to swear.

    4. Re:Belgian RIAA by PlasticArmyMan · · Score: 5, Funny

      We are the RIAA. Lower your firewalls and surrender your harddrives. We will add your bank balance and soul to our own. Your life will adapt to service us. Court cases are futile. Etc. :)

    5. Re:Belgian RIAA by Splab · · Score: 4, Funny

      I like the way the register puts them - Record industry Ass. of *. Perhaps we should use (_*_) to denote all countries?

    6. Re:Belgian RIAA by Godji · · Score: 5, Funny

      Barely Original Recordings Group?

  4. So.. by Aerynvala · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If people use public transportation to move 'stolen' goods, does that mean stores should have the right to sue the transit authorities running the bus systems? Because that's pretty much what that case amounts to.

    --
    http://transformativeworks.org/
    1. Re:So.. by secmartin · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Well, if you rob a bank the driver of your getaway car is likely to land in jail. The main argument in this case is that there are ways for the ISP to know the content transferred is illegal. The ISP says all solutions they tried were ineffective, thus countering this argument.

      Incidentally, I think this is one of the main reasons many ISPs are no longer offering Usenet access; if they are offering their customers newsgroups with the name "alt.binaries.warez" it's hard to argue they don't realize it contains copyrighted material. With P2P transfers that argument is easier to make, especially if the software uses encryption.

  5. Re:Belgian RIAA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Think I can solve this with a Twitter analogy:

    Slashdot has an insane user called Twitter, he comes out with a lot of weird shit, just like the RIAA. Then a user called freenix appears and spouts the same weirdness, as do a bunch of other users. They all have different names and UIDs than Twitter but, if it talks like Twitter, if it doesn't post anything other than support for Twitter, it's safe to assume that it is Twitter.

    The same is true of the Belgian RIAA: if it talks like the RIAA and litigates like the RIAA, it's safe to assume that it is the RIAA.

    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. :)

  6. Hi, Belgian here... by Paaskonijn · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.