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German Court Tells Telco It Can't Advertise On BitTorrent Search Engine

from the you-can-only-advertise-on-sites-we-like dept

Fri, Oct 19th 2007 11:58am — Mike Masnick

A German court has apparently not only decided that it doesn't like bittorrent search engines, but that it's somehow illegal to advertise on one. Specifically, the court has banned the telco Arcor from advertising on the BitTorrent tracker site BitReactor.to. This seems odd for a variety of reasons. First of all, BitTorrent tracker sites are really no different than search engines, meaning that it's a bit of a stretch to claim that they're inherently illegal. But, more importantly, why should the court have any say in where a company chooses to advertise?

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Filed Under: advertising, bittorrent
Companies: arcor, bitreactor, vodafone

9 Comments

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Casper, 19 Oct 2007 @ 12:14pm

Wow...
That is one of the stupidest things I have heard in a while. What law would they be violating if they advertised without the courts permission?
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Wundermac, 19 Oct 2007 @ 1:05pm

Only the first shot ...
First, it is only an injunction. Second, this is a play by the German Association of Video and Media Retailers (think something like the RIAA in the US). They object to a telco supporting people that they see as encouraging theft of music and video.

Want until the final court ruling before passing judgement.
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chris (profile), 19 Oct 2007 @ 1:05pm

everything is against some german law
i was stationed there for 3 years and we were constantly getting in trouble for violating some sort of law, agreement, or other restriction.
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Dick Fer, 19 Oct 2007 @ 1:28pm

Isn't socialism awesome!
Between the EU and the individual government control, it seems like there is very little freedom left in Europe.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Oct 2007 @ 4:45pm

when will it end?
This is absolutely ridiculous. Has anyone ever Googled for (something).torrent? You'll find whatever you need. They would have to shut down all torrent search engines to stop someone like Google from getting results. What's next? Attack Google? I'd like to see someone try...
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Amis raus, 20 Oct 2007 @ 12:26am

Re: everything is against some german law
Come on, your biggest problem was the metric system. I bet you still have not figured out what 50 km/h means. You are one of the last 5% on earth who will never get it. Not to mention that you probably think it is all right to speak just one language and then invade other countries. And I really do not want to know what is in your bong. That is why you got in trouble with German law.
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frogger, 20 Oct 2007 @ 1:56am

What's up, "Amis raus" (German: "Yankees go home"), no news at heise to troll on? What is it you provide here with your offending msg?
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wrs, 20 Oct 2007 @ 1:58am

no reason to wonder
Don't wonder, what's going on here in Germany; the public doesn't get it, mass media shuns to pick up web news, politicians really believe they'd be able to improve national security by placing a back door on every individual home PC.

It's just hopeless here, to issue anything tech related. No competent people in the public. And rather really few in the courts.
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