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Dutch Pirateparty Refuses Order To Take Down Proxy
New submitter CAPSLOCK2000 writes "The Dutch Pirateparty has refused an order from BREIN to take down a proxy to The Pirate Bay. Last month BREIN (the distribution-industries paralegal outfit) forced a number of ISPs to block The Pirate Bay; the first site ever blocked in the Netherlands. Immediately people started using proxies at other ISPs to get to TPB. BREIN then threatened a number of those proxies with legal action. As most of these are run by hobbyists without legal or financial means there was little resistance. Now the Dutch Pirateparty has decided to stand up to the intimidation and refuses to take down its proxy. Today they sent their response in style: by uploading it to The Pirate Bay. In translation: 'The Pirateparty disputes your claim and will not comply with your request.'"
Via Torrentfreak, Pirate Party chairman Dirk Poot: "There are a plethora of proxy sites on the internet. On almost any them TPB can by reached, even with a single URL. That's not even mentioning the ways you can get to TPB if you're willing to put in more effort than saving a single URL. If this keeps going there will be no Internet left by the time BREIN has achieved its goal of making TPB inaccessible. ... In their self-righteous zealousness they have brought substantial damage to the free and open Internet."
As the BREIN lawyers tried to serve a legal document to one of the pirate bay guys via twitter, I suppose that sending replies using similar means is only fair. To bad that they cannot officially read the reply as the website is blocked...
To use a physical analogy....its like seeing a door in frame, attached to no wall, and sending a note to the owner that he should really lock his door lest someone go through it.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
I'm sure that lawbreakers will stop breaking the law if you simply ask them.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
'The Pirateparty disputes your claim and will not comply with your request.'
To quote Capt Barbossa:
I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request. Means "no".
I call it 'The Aristocrats'
Dirk Poot. Haw haw
You might get some on you.
If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
Both parties can be said to be 'In their self-righteous zealousness be bringing substantial damage to the free and open Internet.'
Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
Googling for the brein logo you get this:
http://3voor12.vpro.nl/.imaging/stk/3voor12/zoom/media/3voor12/nieuws/redactie/2009/July/42299862/original/42299862.jpeg
It's just asking for a nazi reference with that red background. (And I just called godwin law on my own post...)
BRAIN is not part of the government, they only pretend to, and they can't order anyone anything.
BREIN is not a part of government, it is a foundation which lobbies for big media.
However, a recent lawsuit determined that they can have some specifiek ISP's (Ziggo and XS4ALL) to block any and all URL's they seem fit. Think about it, the judge actually gave them the power to have _any_ URL they submit blocked at those providers. I'll repeat for emphasis, as the absurdity demands it: THEY CAN HAVE ANY URL BLOCKED, NO RECOURSE POSSIBLE.
And _that_ is what the Pirate Party is standing up against.
So BREIN are clearly barking up the wrong tree. The verdict was handed to Ziggo and XS4ALL, not the Piratenpartij. If anyone has to block anything, it will be Ziggo and XS4ALL, when BREIN hands them the URL and/or IP address of that particular proxy. Nowhere in the verdict does BREIN get the right to push arbitrary sites around, or to hand out orders of any kind.
Oh, by the way, if BREIN does have that IP address blocked, they automatically commit political censorship, which by itself is enough to drag BREIN into court.
To Terminate, or not to Terminate, that's the question - SCSIROB