Usenet Community FTD Not Guilty For Linking To Content... But For Promoting Uploads

from the hmm dept

We found it a bit troubling earlier this year when a Dutch court found that Usenet community FTD was guilty of copyright infringement because its users merely linked to Usenet locations where unauthorized copies of movies resided. An appeals court has now apparently reversed much of that decision -- noting that just linking to infringing works is not infringement, and that downloading for personal use is also not infringement. However, it oddly still kept the injunction on FTD because it claimed that FTD promoted unauthorized uploads, saying that most "spotters" (who point out where the files are) also are uploaders. Of course, as we had noted recently, the movie studio's "evidence" on this was that one of its own investigators uploaded and spotted a film.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: copyright, linking, netherlands, usenet
Companies: ftd


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    NAMELESS.ONE, 17 Nov 2010 @ 2:16am

    so by this ruling

    that guy that killed people with a hammer , Canadian tire is now guilty of promoting murder

    add your own example thats about as mentally challenged as the entire ruling.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    NAMELESS.ONE, 17 Nov 2010 @ 2:16am

    p.s. this is a direct shot at the judical bench

    YOUR IDIOTS

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Marcel de Jong (profile), 17 Nov 2010 @ 3:50am

    Linking is an incorrect term, as there were no actual links on the website to the offending files, not even to the nzb index files.

    What this was, was a place were people could tell others that a certain file was spotted on Usenet. And then discuss the finds, such as rate its quality.

    Often the spotters were also the ones who uploaded the files, but that upload was not done through any of FTDs services. As FTD doesn't offer any such service.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    abc gum, 17 Nov 2010 @ 4:56am

    Shoot the messenger?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Nov 2010 @ 5:00am

    Don't know what they're thinking

    Yeah, there are a lot of idiots out there.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Nov 2010 @ 5:55am

    Thousands of Usenet refugees go to LimewireP(the P is for pirate) or worst they have to go to Facebook :)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Nov 2010 @ 7:51am

    You're doing it wrong. It's MY ID10T5....

    fixed that for you

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      The eejit (profile), 17 Nov 2010 @ 8:12am

      Re: You're doing it wrong. It's MY ID10T5....

      now YOU'RE doing it wrong. 17'5 [\/]/\1 11>1075.

      Also, who's betting the judge was paid to leave that in? :p

      link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.