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.

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

Dirty Tricks: Anti-Piracy Group Caught Planting Evidence In Usenet Case

from the that-doesn't-seem-right dept

TorrentFreak has some disturbing news coming out of the legal fight in the Netherlands between anti-piracy group BREIN and Usenet community provider FTD. Apparently BREIN had somewhere around 15 "investigators" acting as FTD members -- and they may be using the actions of at least one to prove their legal point. FTD has argued, reasonably, that its members are not uploading content, but merely pointing out where it is available. BREIN argued, in response, that it was often the same users who would upload and point it out. Their evidence? A user who uploaded and pointed out the same movie. The problem? The guy who did that... works for BREIN. That sounds like planting evidence, a tactic law enforcement is sometimes seen to employ -- but BREIN is a private organization. Apparently, BRIEN is so closely tied to Dutch law enforcement that they seem to think they're part of it -- even going so far as to copy some law enforcement abuses.

Filed Under: netherlands, planting evidence, uploads, usenet
Companies: brein, ftd

Dutch Court Says Just Publishing Links To A Movie Is Illegal And Must Be Blocked

from the technically-clueless dept

It's still amazing that any court thinks that just publishing links to something should be illegal, but it seems to happen again and again. Over in the Netherlands, usenet community FTD, has lost a case filed by a movie studio, because some of its users pointed out links where you could download a certain movie. FTD didn't host the movie. It didn't store the movie. The movie never touched its servers. FTD didn't offer a torrent of the movie. All it did was let users post where the files existed. And the court found that to be illegal and barred. One of these days, maybe we can expect judges to understand basic technology concepts, but it seems like that day is still a long way off.

Filed Under: copyright, links, netherlands
Companies: ftd

Why Is An Internet Access Company Getting Into The Flower Business?

from the reverse-zapata? dept

If you lived through the first dot com bubble, you probably remember the story of Zapata. This was the former fish-oil company that suddenly decided it wanted to become an internet powerhouse. It put out an unsolicited bid for Excite.com and later announced that it was willing to pay millions for totally random web-based startups to build into its own Zap.com portal. It was a laughingstock of the dot com bubble -- highlighting a non-internet company's rather hamfisted attempt to be thought of as an internet company. However, the news that United Online is buying flower company FTD feels like a Zapata-like moment -- even if it's in reverse. United Online, of course, was formed from the merger of NetZero and Juno, two dot com-era "free/cheap" dialup providers. A few years back, it also bought also-ran quasi-social networking site Classmates.com, and more recently failed to spin that off into an IPO. United Online also bought an online "loyalty" points provider, MyPoints, which again, seems rather unrelated to its other businesses.

While you can understand why the company would want to diversify from crappy dialup internet access and a failed social network that no one uses any more, it still seems weird for it to get into the flower business. Yes, it's true that FTD does a ton of business online, but it's difficult to see what sort of "expertise" United Online has to offer FTD. It's even more odd when you consider that things like Barry Diller's attempt to build a conglomerate of disparate internet properties is being broken up, as he was unable to make whatever "synergies" appear. Maybe there's some explanation that makes sense for United Online, but it feels Zapata-like. It may not quite be fish-oil, but an internet company buying a flower company just doesn't seem right.

Filed Under: flowers, internet
Companies: ftd, united online