Dutch Court Dismisses Criminal Charges Against P2P Index Site, Noting Law Enforcement Relied Too Much On Anti-Piracy Group

from the hmmm dept

Mon, Dec 27th 2010 2:11am — Mike Masnick

We've certainly voiced our concerns over the US government's growing involvement in copyright infringement lawsuits that really should be civil matters between copyright holders and those they accuse of infringement. However, with our government often believing just about anything Hollywood tells them, and with a long term effort by the industry to have the government act as its own private police force, we're seeing things like the totally botched seizure of domain names of blogs and forums on a questionable basis. It seems that the US is not the only country with this sort of problem. Earlier this year, we noted that a court in the Netherlands was questioning why it appeared that Dutch law enforcement had totally outsourced its investigations to the industry "anti-piracy" group BREIN (who, we had noted, in the past somehow ended up keeping evidence) that should not be allowed to be done by private parties.

Well, in that case, against an indexing site called ShareConnector, the court has dismissed the case over the "faulty evidence," specifically having to do with law enforcement relying way too much on industry sources, rather than doing the real investigation themselves. This follows on an earlier criminal case where the operator of ShareConnector had all charges dismissed as well.

Once again, all this highlights is how these issues are not as clear cut as the industry and its supporters often make out. It's getting rather silly how often we hear people insist that this or that service or software are "obviously" infringing on copyrights -- and no case should even be heard before they're shut down/seized/thrown in jail/fined whatever. Copyright is not a black or white situation -- there's an awful lot of gray and it should be determined in a court of law, rather than just on the say so of certain industries who benefit from shutting down alternative means of distribution that interfere with their ability to be a gatekeeper.

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Filed Under: civil, copyright, criminal, law enforcement, netherlands
Companies: brein, shareconnector

21 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 27 Dec 2010 @ 3:00am

Let's hope we start seeing the same in the US courts. I doubt we will though. =(
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Anonymous, 27 Dec 2010 @ 3:03am

Translation: Masnick favors the money-making enterprise, re: a website making money on the back of illegal content, versus the little guy- the guy who can only pray his legitimate request for removal will be honored.

It's always important to remind everyone who's side Mike Masnick is on.

It's not the artist's.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Dec 2010 @ 3:22am

Re:
super cool story bro
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TPBer (profile), 27 Dec 2010 @ 4:32am

Re:
"It's always important to remind everyone who's side Mike Masnick is on"

Reality is where he lives, where are you?
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btrussell (profile), 27 Dec 2010 @ 4:35am

Re:
Whose side are the artists on?
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dave, 27 Dec 2010 @ 4:54am

I wouldn't be on the side of anyone who sells artists an irresponsible fantasy: that they can make money selling copies of works, in a time when the marginal costs of making copies is zero.
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Wolfy, 27 Dec 2010 @ 5:11am

The Netherlands keep inching closer to the top spot on the "Where's Wolfy gonna retire to?" list.
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Richard (profile), 27 Dec 2010 @ 5:43am

Re:
Translation: Masnick favors the money-making enterprise, re: a website making money on the back of illegal content, versus the little guy- the guy who can only pray his legitimate request for removal will be honored.

Translation

The ends justify the means.

Even if you believe ShareConnector to be in the wrong then you are still under an obligation to follow due process.

You do the "little guy" no lasting good if you defend him by unjust means.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Dec 2010 @ 6:05am

Re:
The artist's what?!? It's not the artist's what? Don't leave me hanging!
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V, 27 Dec 2010 @ 6:42am

Re: The idiocy of posters
Translation: I am a complete moron who favors a totalarian government where they can remove the rights of the people on the say so of a corporate monstrosity whose sole purpose is to make money - at any cost. Who care for nothing but the bottom line and to hell with people and their rights.

You are a complete fool if you believe that these rights hedging laws truly benefit ANYONE other than large corporations.

"Translation: Masnick favors the money-making enterprise, re: a website making money on the back of illegal content, versus the little guy- the guy who can only pray his legitimate request for removal will be honored.

It's always important to remind everyone who's side Mike Masnick is on.

It's not the artist's."
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Richard (profile), 27 Dec 2010 @ 7:06am

Re:
What's wrong with Antigua?
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Dec 2010 @ 7:14am

What is really funny is that it doesn't make the site any less guilty, the courts just told the government to do a little more of their own work to proscute the individual players.

As the story says, the service was still found to be unlawful.

The results are the same: the site stays down. End.
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Gwiz (profile), 27 Dec 2010 @ 7:41am

Re:
The results are the same: the site stays down. End.

Translation: "We will force these damn pirates back into the 80's by any means, legal or otherwise, so they have to buy our shiny discs."

Sorry, trying to shove all the evil back into Pandora's Box isn't going to work.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Dec 2010 @ 8:01am

Re:
I bet you can't wait for the day that IP is 80% of our GDP... Then 200 or so countries at the same time tell the US to fuck it's self. Then this country goes to war over Mickey Mouse and Steamboat Willy. Good Times ahead!!!
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The eejit (profile), 27 Dec 2010 @ 12:59pm

Re:
Is it wrong that I read this in Vincent Price's voice?
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The eejit (profile), 27 Dec 2010 @ 1:19pm

Re: Re:
Okay, I can see the US going to war over some bullshit reason like Steamboat Willie ripoffs, but MM?

...That's Disney's job.
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Justin Olbrantz (Quantam), 27 Dec 2010 @ 3:19pm

Re: Re:
It's quite simple, really. Countries usually act in (what they believe is) their own best interest. Countries like China and India are lax on IP because they're net importers of IP, and the US is so hard-core anti-piracy because it depends on IP export to (help) compensate for its gross trade imbalance for manufactured goods.

But what do you suppose is going to happen in 50 years or so when China and India become fully as technologically advanced as the US but have 8x the population to produce technology et al, and the US is now a net importer of IP? I plan to be a resident of another country by that point, because things in the US are gonna suck.
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jimbo, 28 Dec 2010 @ 1:47pm

the 'certain industries who benefit from shutting down alternative means of distribution that interfere with their ability to be a gatekeeper' need to create competition by pricing their media etc sensibly. however, they are so money orientated that they refuse to do this, insisting that a monopoly is the only way for them to survive.
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Hephaestus (profile), 28 Dec 2010 @ 4:42pm

Re: Re:
That is so creepy after re-reading it in Vincents voice.
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Hephaestus (profile), 28 Dec 2010 @ 4:44pm

Re: Re:
Internet = Pandora's box ... bloody brilliant!!!
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Hephaestus (profile), 28 Dec 2010 @ 4:45pm

Re: Re: messed that up
Internet = Pandora's box ... bloody brilliant!!!

That means that hope is still alive ...
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