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Dutch Govt to Make Downloading a Crime, Block P2P Sites

Jared Moya — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:07:18 +0000

Fred Teeven, the Secretary for Security and Justice wants to make downloading for personal use a crime, and to allow copyright holders to obtain a court order to force an ISP to block a "specific website or service" accused of infringement.

To the dismay of many, the Netherlands, an erstwhile bastion of freedom and inhibition, is now moving to usher in a new era of repressive Internet filtering and copyright crimes. Fred Teeven, the Secretary for Security and Justice, wants to "modernize" the country's copyright laws to build "confidence in the copyright organizations," and to "enhance the position of authors and performers." Dutch law currently only outlaws uploading copyrighted material; it's considered illegal "distribution." Downloading copyrighted material for personal use is legal, at least for content other than games and software, but the govt wants to add movies and music to the list. In exchange for adding music and movies the govt would eliminate the private copying levy currently added to the price of blank media like CD-Rs and DVD-Rs. It would also make new levies on new technologies, in his words, "undesirable." "Technology has overtaken the private copying regime," he says. " There is therefore no room for the private copying levies. New levies on devices such as MP-3 players, laptops, DVD recorders and USB sticks will Teeven undesirable. The same applies to a tax on Internet subscriptions." The govt also wants to address copyright infringement abroad. It says that "owners will soon be able to ask a court for an order to block a specific website or service once it is confirmed that they acted unlawfully, and then Dutch access providers will have to block access for their customers to those sites." He adds that it would only be a measure of "last resort," and that site administrators and hosting providers would have a chance to dispute the allegations. In a nod that copyright holders are also part of the problem, he says that copyright license reform is also necessary if the govt is to encourage legal alternatives to online infringement. "New online services now have 27 EU member states to obtain a license," he says. "Its is a marked contrast to the boundless nature of the Internet and is an obstacle to the provision of legal digital creative services." He also calls for an incorporation of a "fair-use" exemption in any legislation to "encourage creative reuse of works." Dutch anti-P2P group BREIN, which has successfully targeted illegal downloaders and shuttered a number of piracy sites over the years, said it is a "supporter of the ban" because it removes one of the last defenses offered by P2P sites and services which had argued they only "facilitate the downloading of illegal content [for personal use]" which is legal in the Netherlands. Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com

BREIN Shutters 11 “Illegal” Usenet Forums

Jared Moya — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:25:32 +0000

Uses earlier ruling that ordered Usenet forum FTD to remove links to copyrighted files to press other Usenet forums to remove them as well.

After having successfully convinced a Dutch court to order the Usenet forum FTD to remove links to .NZB files or face a fine, Dutch anti-P2P group BREIN has been going after other Usenet forums and so far 11 have gone offline. The Court of Haarlem ruled that FTD must remove all links to copyrighted files represented by BREIN within one month or pay a fine of 15,000 euros per day up to a maximum of 300,000 euros. It found "that FTD structurally and systematically operates an Internet forum that facilitates and encourages the illegal uploading and that she herself receives income but that the owners affiliated with BREIN serious damage to property. FTD thus acted unlawfully. " BREIN took the ruling and began notifying similar Usenet forums to cease and desist or face a similar fate in court. So far 11, with well over 900,000 users, have opted to go offline instead. "You see that downloaders of illegal content to the search for alternatives," says BREIN director Tim Kuik. "The idea is that they go to legal services, but there is a hardcore [element] who loudly insist they will not pay. Even if a service [like] Spotify with 20 hours per month of free music streaming is not good enough for them. Illegal services are seen by them as a hero, even if they do not pay any money to the owners of the product." Kuik uses the same argument about site operators unfairly profiting from the ads on the site, but doesn't seem to consider the fact that the sites cost money to run, and it has to come from somewhere. He also says that it hinders the ability of new legal alternatives to appear. "The growth and development of legal services is severely hampered by this illegal competition," he adds. Is that really the case? When it comes to TV shows and movies content creators have largely refused to create viable legal alternatives, mainly because of the fear of undermining current content distribution systems like DVDs or cable TV providers. Moreover, shutting down Usenet forums won't create any new customers so long as copyright holders aren't willing to provide them the services they really want. Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com

Dutch Anti-P2P Group, MPAA Shutter 12 BitTorrent Sites

Jared Moya — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:50:47 +0000

BREIN teams up with the MPAA to shutdown more unnamed "illegal sites," but does it even matter?

BREIN has been one of the more prolific anti-P2P groups over the years, shuttering hundreds of sites annually. During the fist six months of last year alone BREIN managed to shutdown 422 "illegal websites comprised of 384 BitTorrent tracker sites, 29 Cyberlockers, 5 usenet indexers, 6 streaming sites, and an FTP summit site. It ended up with a final tally of 665 sites and servers for the year. The Dutch outfit's most high profile victory came against the once mighty Mininova. Back in 2009 it managed to convince the Court of Utrecht in the Netherlands that it was "encouraging and profiting from infringements on copyright and neighboring rights." The court gave the BitTorrent site 3 months to comply, but it wasn't until early last month that the case was finally settled. Now BREIN has managed another victory in the P2P war, proudly announcing that it, in cooperation with the MPAA, had successfully shutdown 12 more unnamed sites in the US. It never publishes the names of the sites it shuts down for fear of giving them added publicly and the potential to "reboot" elsewhere, but they can;t have been that large considering the conspicuous absence of any loud outcries from BitTorrent users. BREIN admits that new BitTorrent sites are sure to pop in their place, but says it will work to shut them down too before they have a chance to grow too big. "There will be new sites but we will shut them down faster so they can not grow big," says BREIN director Tim Kuik. "Our goal is stopping the accessibility of illegal sites that Web users prefer that hinder the use of legitimate platforms." The only problem with that statement is that many times BitTorrent users are downloading or streaming content illegally only because there are no legitimate platforms available. Content providers routinely distribute content with arbitrary geographical restrictions that prevent consumers from legally accessing it. Until this is addressed content providers are fighting a losing battle against consumers who are doing more than making up for a gap in the marketplace. Moreover, there are still thousands of BitTorrent sites to choose from. If BREIN and the MPAA expect to have any impact on P2P they'll have to shut down more like 120 or 1200 at a time, not a measly 12. Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com

MPAA Helps Dutch Anti-P2P Group Seize 29 Domain Names

Jared Moya — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 03:50:02 +0000

Takes fight against illegal file-sharing to a whole new level by allowing foreign groups to seize US-based domain names before the accused have even had a chance to plead their case in court.

Domain name seizures have taken a dramatic turn with news that an overseas group has successfully managed to seize the domain names of 29 US-based BitTorrent tracker and NZB sites. Dutch anti-P2P group BREIN, with a little help from the MPAA, targeted the sites for illegally making copyrighted material available to the people of Netherlands. "These are sites that routinely anonymous illegal access to someone else's work," says BREIN director Tim Kuik in press release. "This year we have made over 600 of these sites inaccessible." As of July of this year BREIN had managed to shutter what it called 422 illegal websites, including 384 BitTorrent tracker sites, 29 Cyberlockers, 5 usenet indexers, 6 streaming sites, and an FTP summit site, but this is the first time it's extended its reach to the US. "Some seek refuge in a foreign or hosting provider," he says. "These 29 apparently thought that America could go undisturbed. Through cooperation with our foreign colleagues we can makes sites in other countries inaccessible too." No matter what your opinion of illegal file-sharing is it's disturbing to think that a foreign entity can seize a US domain name without due process of law. What's to stop other groups or countries from seizing domain names of sites accused of hosting material deemed illegal in that country? Turkey banned YouTube for two years after videos considered offensive to the country's founder Ataturk were uploaded to the popular video-sharing site. What if it had decided to try and seize the domain name of the "illegal site" rather than block access? Seizing domain names sets a bad precedent that other countries may choose to follow. In the US the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, has seized at least 82 domain names so far as part of the ongoing “Operation In Our Sites." BREIN says it also has the names and addresses of the people it claims ran the 29 illegal sites and plans to hold them "personally liable" for copyright infringement. So far it's unclear what the names of the 29 sites are, but it's still hard to believe that a foreign group managed to seize the domain names of sites located in the US before the accused even had a chance to plead their case in court. It makes you wonder who the real pirate is in all of this. This new development should add further impetus for the P2P DNS system proposed by Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde in the wake of ICE's "Operation in Our Sites." Sunde is looking to put the DNS system beyond the control of govts and private companies by creating a “new competing root-server” that will use P2P instead. Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com

Mininova Settles Copyright Infringement Case with BREIN

Jared Moya — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:49:19 +0000

BitTorrent tracker site agress to abide by earlier copyright infringement verdict of the Court of Utrecht and pay the Dutch anti-P2P group an "undisclosed," and presumably reduced, amount of money.

It seems the legal fight between the once venerated Dutch BitTorrent tracker site Mininova and the Dutch anti-P2P group BREIN has finally come to a close with news that the two have finally agreed to a settlement in the long-running case. Back in May of 2008 BREIN, a joint Dutch anti-piracy program of authors, artists and producers of music, film, and interactive software in the fight against Intellectual Property theft, warned Mininova that it must “take effective measures to curtail this [copyright] abuse” on its own or BREIN would use the courts to force it to do so. “Mininova has a business model that is based on illegality. It benefits from large-scale infringement, “said the group's director, Tim Kuik, at the time. “A Take Down Notice procedure is absolutely insufficient for a site that structurally and systematically using unauthorized files." He said that it Mininova cannot prevent the "illegal supply" of copyrighted material then the site "must stop" offering content period. A year later Mininova implemented a content recognition system with the hopes that would "make it easier for copyright owners to remove torrents that refer to infringing content from Mininova." It wasn't good enough for BREIN which wanted more stringent prevention mechanism in place. It felt the system didn't go far enough and took Mininova to court to make sure that no trackers that link to copyrighted material appear on the site. On the August 26th, 2009, the Court of Utrecht in the Netherlands agreed, giving Mininova 3 months to remove torrent trackers that link to copyrighted material or face fines of €1000 euro ($1,422 USD) per link up to a maximum of €5m ($7.13m USD). Mininova argued that it does "not contain data that might be copyrighted in any way" and that it does remove torrents "if the copyright holder of the content requests so.” The court found that Mininova acted unlawfully by “giving opportunity to, encouraging and profiting from infringements on copyright and neighboring rights." By November Mininova had gone legit and limited available content to only that which is offered on its legitimate Content Distribution service. Mininova had vowed to appeal the ruling, and BREIN was purportedly preparing to file a claim for damages on behalf of the copyright holders it represents, but now the two have announced a settlement that will resolve the case. "Both parties have now reached a settlement. Mininova will abide the verdict of the Court of Utrecht and will withdraw the appeal," reads a blog post on Mininova. "In order to settle the matter permanently, Mininova pays BREIN an undisclosed amount of money." It's not clear how much Mininova will be asked to pay, but it surely has to be less than it would face in court. Either way, the sad reality of it all for BREIN is that former users merely flocked to other sites like Demonoid, ISOHunt, The Pirate Bay, and other public and private trackers. Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com

BREIN’s Director Physically Delivers Dutch Verdict to Pirate Bay’s Sunde

Jared Moya — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:16:32 +0000

BREIN managing director Tim Kuik tracks down the co-founder of the Swedish BitTorrent tracker site in Vienna to deliver a copy of a Dutch court's ruling against him in person.

Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN has apparently gone to great lengths to make sure that The Pirate Bay is aware of a recent verdict against the Swedish BitTorrent tracker site. This past July BREIN convinced a judge there at a full trial that The Pirate Bay facilitates copyright infringement by distributing trackers with which users are able to share copyrighted material. The case was an appeal of earlier ruling against The Pirate Bay from last October, and was the culmination of a years-long effort by BREIN that began in earnest last June. The judge ordered the site to immediately begin preventing Dutch users from accessing copyrighted material, giving the 3 founders 3 months to remove a list of torrents or face fines of 50,000 euros ($64,590 USD) p/day. The have so far refused to comply and BREIN managing director Tim Kuik set out to personally make sure the co-founders are aware of the judgment. He learned that Peter Sunde would be in Vienna to participate in a public debate earlier today and apparently dropped everything to deliver the verdict in person. "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," tweeted Kuik. “And we have it on film and tape to prove it.” Kuik said he spotted Sunde on a terrace near the open air debate venue, approached him, explained the content of the verdict, 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.” That's the thing. None of the site's co-founders have bothered to show up in court because they insist they have no connection whatsoever with the site, that the true owner is Reservella, an argument Dutch court's have refused to accept. It's all silly state of affairs. Blocking the site from Dutch users is impossible. There are thousands of ways to bypass the filters. Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com

Dutch ISPs Don’t Have to Block The Pirate Bay

Jared Moya — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:58:24 +0000

Court says that anti-piracy group BREIN cannot prove that a majority of Ziggo subscribers infringe the copyright of the artists whom it represents.

The back and forth between Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN and The Pirate Bay continues with news that Ziggo, the Netherlands' largest ISP, doesn't have to block access to the Swedish BitTorrent tracker site after all. The controversy began back in early May when Ziggo first refused requests by BREIN to block the site. It argued that it’s simply a conduit to the Internet and shouldn’t be forced to filter the results, especially considering there’s no legal basis for such a request. “We are simply a channel,” said a spokesman for the telco. “We give people access to the internet and support an open internet.” BREIN countered that although the “Internet is public..there is no right of access to an illegal site.” It cited last year's Dutch court ruling which ordered The Pirate Bay to prevent Dutch users from accessing copyrighted material on the site, and giving it 3 months to remove a list of torrents or face fines of 50,000 euros ($64,590 USD) p/day. That ruling was recently upheld on appeal. A judge in The Hague sided with Ziggo and ruled the ISP is not required to prevent access to The Pirate Bay. The court determined that BREIN cannot prove that a "vast majority" of Ziggo subscribers are using the site to infringe the copyrights of the artists it represents. It's all a curious affair because even if Ziggo was forced to prevent customers from accessing The Pirate Bay they could easily circumvent any filtering technology in a matter of minutes if not seconds. Also complicating the matter is the recent ruling that The Pirate Bay must block Dutch users. Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com

Dutch Court Reaffirms Pirate Bay Ban

Jared Moya — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:53:30 +0000

Upholds previous ruling that the Swedish BitTorrent tracker site immediately begin preventing Dutch users from accessing copyrighted material, giving the 3 founders 3 months to remove a list of torrents or face fines of 50,000 euros ($64,590 USD) p/day.

Chalk up another win for Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN with its recent victory an an Amsterdam court. It convinced a judge there at a full trial that Swedish BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay does indeed facilitate copyright infringement by distributing trackers that users with which they are able to share copyrighted material. The case is the culminations of a years-long effort that began in earnest last June, BREIN even using Facebook and Twitter to serve The Pirate Bay founders with court summons. A Dutch court initially ordered the site's founders to begin blocking access by Dutch citizens or face a fine of 30,000 euros ($42,906 USD). It ordered them “each separately and together, to stop and keep stopped the infringements on copyright and related rights of Stichting BREIN in the Netherlands.” “None of us have access to even block everything, so good luck with that,” was co-founder Peter Sunde's twitter response. “I wrote a letter to the court telling them that.” The Pirate Bay appealed the ban a week later, but eventually lost their case last October. This latest ruling was an appeal of that earlier appeal loss. In this case the founders again didn’t show up for the court hearings or hire attorney's. The three claim they haven't been the owners of The Pirate Bay since 2006, but since they couldn't prove who owned the site or to whom they had sold it the court rejected their claim out of hand. It all is a fruitless endeavor for many know it's fairly easy to bypass any geographic filters that it may be asked to implement. Canada-based isoHunt is a perfect example. Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com

BREIN Shutters 384 BitTorrent Sites, World Yawns

Jared Moya — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:18:56 +0000

Dutch anti-piracy group cleans house in ways that the IFPI, RIAA, and MPAA surely envy, shuttering 422 "illegal websites," 5 usenet indexers, and an FTP summit site so far this year.

While the world's attention was focused on the Federal govt's recent “Operation In Our Sites,” Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN was the one making the biggest dent in online piracy. The Feds managed to seize a measly 9 domain names while BREIN, so far this year, has managed to shutter 422 illegal websites, including 384 BitTorrent tracker sites and 29 Cyberlockers sites where it says some 30,000 "illegal files were removed." "We've also closed five usenet indexers, 6 streaming sites, and an FTP summit site," it adds. What makes the news so odd is that for having successfully managed to close so many sites, the 384 BitTorrent tracker sites in particular, nobody seems to have noticed or even cared. The business of P2P has gone on rather undisturbed it would seem. So what's going on? BREIN boss Tim Kuik, wisely not wanting to give targets additional traffic and popularity, is keeping his cards close to his chest. He does, however discuss how the process works. “The take down most often takes place through the hosting provider,” BREIN boss Tim Kuik told TorrentFreak. “We also obtain identity details from the hosting providers but these sites tend to register under a false name. If the site changes to another hosting provider, we will contact that provider. In case all else fails we will go for blocking of the site by access providers. Currently there is court case pending about that.” With 422 "illegal sites" down so far this year and plenty of time left on the clock before 2011 arrives, BREIN is managing to do what the US govt, the RIAA, IFPI, and MPAA have so far been unable to - close down more than just a handful of sites per year. The sad thing is that for all of its hard work, as I mentioned before, nobody's really noticed. Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com [TR via TF]

Dutch Anti-Piracy Group Trying to Ban Usenet Discussions

Jared Moya — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:09:04 +0000

BREIN says what Usenet community Fill Threads Database (FTD) does is “simply criminal” even though it doesn’t provide hyperlinks, torrents, NZB-files or any other way to download content.

The Usenet community Fill Threads Database (FTD), the Netherlands’ largest, first sued Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN back in May of this year over inflammatory accusations made by BREIN president Tim Kuik to a Dutch newspaper

“Although they [FTD] are not carrying illegal content on their servers, what FTD does is simply criminal,” he said.

FTD responded by suing for a retraction of the libelous statement by Kuik and demanding that the courts declare their activities legal.

Not be outdone, BREIN countersued, arguing that FTD is a “criminal operation” that “organizes and promotes” (mostly) illegal Usenet content, and that unless it closes it wants a penalty of 50,000 euros ($70,000) per day imposed until it does.

“With terms like ‘Access Key’ and ‘directions’ BREIN tries to cover up what really matters: ordinary Dutch people reporting what they see on Usenet, so that others (legally, for own use) to download,” now says FTD’s attorney Arnoud Engelfriet. “There is no providing hyperlinks, torrents, NZB-files or other technical possibilities to download works. BREIN basically says that it should be forbidden to talk about downloading material.”

FTD is rightly angry that BREIN is going to such great lengths to stifle mere discussions of possibly downloading copyrighted material, and so should us all.

Imagine if simple bulletin boards and discussion sites, or even the forums here at ZP for that matter, were found to be complicit for mentioning where to find copyrighted material as is currently the case when people mention their favorite BitTorrent tracker sites, etc..

It’s scary to say the least.

Stay tuned

For a guide on Usenet check out my guide “How to Download from Newsgroups.“

jared@zeropaid.com