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Usenet Group Sues Dutch RIAA

Posted by Soulskill on from the best-defense dept.

eldavojohn writes "With the Pirate Bay trial, it's been easy to overlook similar struggles in other nations. A Dutch Usenet community named FTD is going on the offensive and suing BREIN (Bescherming Rechten Entertainment Industrie Nederland). You may remember BREIN (along with the IFPI & BPI) as the people who raided and cut out the heart of eDonkey. This is turning into a pretty familiar scenario; the FTD group makes software that allows its 450k members to easily find copyrighted content for free on Usenet. The shocking part is that FTD isn't waiting for BREIN to sue them. FTD is refusing to take down their file location reports, and is actually suing BREIN. Why the preemptive attack? FTD wants the courts to show that the act of downloading is not illegal in the Netherlands. (Both articles have the five points in English that FTD wants the courts to settle.) OSNews has a few more details on the story."

15 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Recollection by Norsefire · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I seem to recall MDY Industries taking pre-emptive legal action against Blizzard. It doesn't work as well as you might think.

    1. Re:Recollection by Dan667 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually it does. If more groups start doing this, it will tie up all the RIAA legal resources defending themselves.

    2. Re:Recollection by MarkvW · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It does work--at least it works better than the alternatives. Take two assumptions that are pertinent here: (1) You want to keep doing what you are doing; and (2) You are headed for a showdown with the MAFIAA if you proceed.

      In this scenario, you are going to court (that's the given). It is often better to file your lawsuit BEFORE you damage your opponent, because that way the trial stakes are not so high for you. It is important to remember that a trial is always a HUGE uncertainty because juries can be wild or stupid. Anything you can do to minimize your financial exposure is a good thing. Remember that you are not (strategically, at least) going after anybody for money in either the preemptive situation or the responsive situation--you want a ruling enabling you to do what you want to do!!

      If you have already bet the company and you have already caused your opponent damages, then it probably doesn't matter, because the stakes are high either way. That appears to be the Blizzard situation. Also, the Blizzard situation failed for the developer because he was flamingly, obviously, in the wrong and he was a fool to fuck with the big bear. If you're wrong, who cares whether you're preemptive or responsive--you're doomed anyway.

      When you haven't done anything to hurt your opponent yet and you can afford to wait--that's the paradigm optimal situation for a preemptive attack.

    3. Re:Recollection by charlieman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      and of course, the lawyers always win

    4. Re:Recollection by multisync · · Score: 4, Insightful

      and of course, the lawyers always win

      So lawyers make money. Big deal. So do doctors, and auto mechanics, and the geeks for chrissakes.

      Imagine that, people who have specialized knowledge make money, even when idiots wreck their cars, bring disease upon themselves with their lifestyle choices or use litigation as a business model.

      Many also do pro bono work for people who are in need of legal council but can not afford it. Despite this, nearly half of litigants in my country are forced to represent themselves, straining the court system and usually resulting in justice denied for those too poor to pay for an attorney.

      But I'm sure organizations like the RIAA would welcome your lawyer bashing, and encourage you to continue spreading the myth that it's the lawyers - not the executives - who are at fault.

      --
      I don't care why you're posting AC
  2. RIAA??!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    How the hell is BREIN the "Dutch RIAA"? They have no links to each other, no affiliation, no hard relation whatsover.

    Calling them the "Dutch RIAA" is inflammatory and deceiving. This is slashdot sensationalism at its finest.

    1. Re:RIAA??!!! by Darkness404 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But most Americans, even many /.ers have no clue about the rest of the world. The main lobby group for music and copyright in the USA is the RIAA. In the Netherlands they have BREIN. They both have the same essential functions. Its like calling the English Parliament the congress of England, sure, its not correct, but its something that most Americans can identify with.

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    2. Re:RIAA??!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      How the hell is BREIN the "Dutch RIAA"? They have no links to each other, no affiliation, no hard relation whatsover.

      Calling them the "Dutch RIAA" is inflammatory and deceiving. This is slashdot sensationalism at its finest.

      Buma/stemra is the organisation that is responsible for defening the rights of artists when it comes to copyright/IP. Brein is the foundation that goes on their behalf after pirates. Your right that it was not put there correctly, that it is sensationalism is a bit of an exageration because practically their doing the same thing.

    3. Re:RIAA??!!! by kripkenstein · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How the hell is BREIN the "Dutch RIAA"? They have no links to each other, no affiliation, no hard relation whatsover.

      "Dutch RIAA" doesn't mean they are affiliated with the (US) RIAA or that they have any relationship. All the phrase means is that they are the equivalent of the RIAA, in the Netherlands. In other words, that they have a similar purpose and so forth.

  3. Re:What's the point by Darkness404 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But whenever you have a place where real democracy can happen and not one thats locked down into two parties, you start to have politicizations who answer to the people. Might I remind you about the Pirate Bay and how Sweden is heading towards some pirate party representation? Sure, this won't happen overnight, but whenever you get a few members in the EU parliament that listen to the people, well, a revolution is sure to happen.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
  4. This makes sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Downloading, in essence, should not be illegal. The fact that someone is in possession of materials that they do not have the copyright to should be the focus of the legal procedures. There are plenty of reasons why someone who has the rights to a piece of information (i.e. someone who pays for cable in order to have the right to view an episode of a televisions show wanting to download said television show) would access them digitally.

    A company should have to prove that an individual does not have a license for materials that they possess. I see this as a simple issue of due process of the law.

  5. Re:What's the point by mmaniaci · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But here we are discussing it, hating it, and wishing for change. Eventually the straw will break the camel's back.

  6. Downloading is legal in the Netherlands by hkz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A small difference with, say, the USA is that downloading music and films is legal in the Netherlands, but uploading is not. So even if BREIN's assertion that FTD is aiding and abetting downloading is correct, that does not in itself mean that anything illegal is going on. In fact, the reason FTD is suing BREIN is because they are fed up with the slander against them; BREIN has publically accused them of illegal behavior, and now FTD wants to get a legal ruling that tells them to go piss up a rope.

    1. Re:Downloading is legal in the Netherlands by Twisted+Willie · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's not just that they are fed up with the slander.

      The FTD software used to have what they called an 'NZB Button'. On the page with the information about the content you were looking for (filenames, size, description, etc.), there'd be a button which if clicked on directed you to an external usenet search engine, with the correct search terms already filled in. After talks between FTD and BREIN, FTD decided to remove this button, and to not allow their users to post direct links to nzb files, or nzb search engines. FTD did this to prevent BREIN from coming after them, they are not linking to any content whatsoever anymore. There's just users telling you what filenames to look for in which newsgroups.

      So, here's FTD talking to BREIN, agreeing on taking these actions, taking away any shred of doubt that what they're doing is completely legal under Dutch law, when Tim Kuik comes along and happily continues to call them criminals.

      In all fairness, there are third party plugins to the FTD software that re-enable this NZB button, but those are beyond FTD's control.

  7. Re:WRONG by Godwin+O'Hitler · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Metaphors don't go in quotes. Nor do they usually need explaining.

    --
    No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.