Two years ago BREIN, representing the movie and music industries, took News-Service.com (NSE) to court.

Although the name NSE might not ring a bell with many people, it is the largest usenet provider in Europe and has many high-profile resellers such as Usenext.

Through the court BREIN demanded that the NSE delete all infringing content from its servers, and six weeks ago the Court of Amsterdam sided with the copyright holders.

In an attempt to keep their service operational, NSE asked the Court to put the execution of the verdict on hold while the Usenet provider appealed its case, but this week that request was denied. As a result NSE was forced to shut down its services.

“This means that we are forced to cease our operations with immediate effect,” NSE said in a statement.

Despite the setback the Usenet provider will persist with its appeal, not least because the landmark verdict could have disastrous consequences for other Usenet providers.

“For reasons of principle, News-Service.com will not accept the verdict and has lodged an appeal,” NSE announced.

The verdict of the Amsterdam Court is very similar to the one that decimated BitTorrent site Mininova two years ago. It requires NSE to finding a way to identify and delete all copyrighted files from its servers, which is practically impossible.

Aside from threatening many other Usenet providers, a similar judgement would also mean the end of file-hosting sites such as Megaupload, and other cloud storage services including Dropbox. All these services remove copyrighted files when they are asked to, but policing their own servers proactively may prove to be impossible.

BREIN is nevertheless delighted with the verdict of the court. “It is a breakthrough step to further dismantle the availability of illegal content on Usenet,” director Tim Kuik said previously.

It wouldn’t be a surprise if BREIN now waves this verdict in the face of other Usenet providers, in the hope of shutting them down. Using this same tactic BREIN has already managed to pull hundreds of (small) torrent sites offline in the Netherlands.

TorrentFreak contacted NSE to ask what the decision means for their resellers and whether they have plans to “go abroad” in some shape or form. We will update this article when a response comes in.

Source: Major Usenet Provider Shuts Down Following Court Order

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Last month the Amsterdam Court confirmed an earlier judgment and ordered The Pirate Bay to cease all of their activities in The Netherlands. Despite denials of current connections to the site, the founders face penalties of 50,000 euros per day for non-compliance. Today BREIN boss Tim Kuik physically tracked down Peter Sunde in Europe, explained the verdict and had their encounter filmed.

Last summer, Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN took three Pirate Bay founders Gottfrid Svartholm, Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde to court. The mission – neutralize The Pirate Bay’s activities in The Netherlands.

BREIN won the case and the founders were ordered to block Dutch users, a decision they chose to appeal. The trio denied current connections to the site but the Court rejected this defense as the defendants could not name the current owners or provide any documents proving that the site was sold to Seychelles-based company Reservella.

Last month the earlier ruling was confirmed in a full trial at the Amsterdam Court, a hearing none of the founders attended.

The Court ruled that Fredrik, Gottfrid and Peter will now have to pay penalties of 50,000 euros per day for non-compliance. However no action has yet been taken by the site to block Dutch users.

Perhaps concerned that the founders aren’t aware of the Dutch ruling, today BREIN boss Tim Kuik embarked on a remarkable mission.

As we reported earlier, the Green Party hosted a panel discussion titled “Art in the Digital Age” in Vienna, Austria, this week. One of the invited panel guests was Werner Müller, boss of the Austrian film and music industry trade association. Müller withdrew his participation after he discovered that Peter Sunde was going to be there.

Tim Kuik, however, saw pinning down Sunde’s location as a golden opportunity.

“Just explained new Dutch verdict to Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde in Vienna and handed him a copy of it: stop or pay 50K a day,” said Kuik tonight.

In order to document the event, Kuik also had their meeting filmed and recorded.

In a statement BREIN said that Sunde “was spotted on a terrace near the open air debate venue”. There he was approached by Kuik who explained the Amsterdam Court’s ruling and gave him a copy.

“He is aware of the verdict now”, says Kuik, “so the terms are running, he has to show up or pay up.”

Article from: TorrentFreak.

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In a full trial the Amsterdam Court has confirmed an earlier judgment and ordered The Pirate Bay to stop all their activities in The Netherlands. The Court ruled that the site’s operators were assisting copyright infringement. If the three ‘operators’ fail to ban Dutch users, they will have to pay penalties of 50,000 euros per day.

In an attempt to ensure that Dutch citizens can’t access The Pirate Bay, Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN took three of the tracker’s founders to court last summer.

The anti-piracy group won the case and Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Peter Sunde were ordered to block Dutch users, a decision they decided to appeal.

In the verdict of the initial appeal, the Court ruled that The Pirate Bay had to remove a list of torrents linking to copyrighted works and make their website inaccessible to Dutch visitors. This ruling was confirmed yesterday in a full trial by the Amsterdam Court.

The judge ruled that The Pirate Bay itself is not necessarily guilty of copyright infringement. However, according to the Court, the site’s operators assist in copyright infringement by allowing and encouraging its users to share torrents.

Previously, the defendants had argued that they were not the owners of the site, but a Seychelles-based company named Reservella. The Court rejected this defense as the defendants could not name the current owners or provide any documents proving that the site was sold. It concluded that the three defendants are responsible for the site.

In an appeal of one of the earlier cases against BREIN the defendants hired a lawyer to represent them, but in the full trial the defendants did not show up or defend themselves.

The Amsterdam Court ruled that Fredrik, Gottfrid and Peter will now have to pay penalties of 50,000 euros per day if they don’t comply. However, based on their previous inaction and the claims that they are no longer responsible for The Pirate Bay, it is unlikely that Dutch users will be cut off.

The worrying thing for other BitTorrent site owners is that BREIN might use this case as a precedent in an attempt to get other big torrent sites offline. If that’s the case, the effects of the current judgement might be more severe that they appear at the moment.

In the meantime, BREIN has been anticipating and making the best of The Pirate Bay’s lack of response by starting a lawsuit against Dutch ISP Ziggo, demanding it blocks user access to The Pirate Bay website.

Article from: TorrentFreak.

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Presently, downloading movies and music for personal use in The Netherlands is seen as “fair use” and not punishable by law. However, in common with most other European countries, The Netherlands is trying to find a solution to the ever-increasing use of file-sharing sites to share copyrighted material.

One of the options for the government is to criminalize unauthorized downloading by making it punishable by law. The entertainment industry, represented by Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN among others, have lobbied extensively for such a change. Consumers, on the other hand, prefer to keep things the way they are right now.

Backing interests of the general public, Dutch consumer rights organization Consumentenbond has started a campaign where they defend the public’s right to download copyrighted material without repercussions.

“Sometimes I buy, sometimes I download, but I am not a criminal..,” is the message the consumer organization is trying to put across in the newly launched campaign.

The rationale behind the campaign is that the the entertainment industry has failed to provide sufficient legal alternatives to online piracy, leaving consumers no other choice than to consume online media through file-sharing sites.

“At the moment, paid downloads don’t offer any added value compared to unauthorized downloads,” Bart Combée, Director of the Consumer Rights Organization said . “Before criminalizing consumers, the industry has to make sure that they offer a decent amount of content. Once that improves, I think consumers are willing to pay,” he added.

Previously, the consumer rights organization also stood up for users of The Pirate Bay, after the Amsterdam court ruled that the site should block Dutch users without reviewing the evidence carefully.

The present campaign reiterates what many others have said before. There has to be a fair balance between the interests of multi-billion dollar companies and the individual rights of consumers. And since a report commissioned by the Dutch government recently concluded that file-sharing actually has a positive effect on the economy, it might be best to keep things the way they are for now.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

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