Dutch court orders Pirate Bay to remove links
October 22, 2009
The logo of The Pirate Bay, the world's most famous file-sharing site. A Dutch court Thursday ordered Sweden's The Pirate Bay filesharing website to remove links to works of members of a Netherlands-based music and film copyright protection group.
A Dutch court Thursday ordered Sweden's The Pirate Bay filesharing website to remove links to works of members of a Netherlands-based music and film copyright protection group.
The Amsterdam referral court ordered the three founders of the website to "take off within three months all downloadable links that allow access to files representing the works of the members of Stichting Brein," which had filed a suit.
They will be fined 5,000 euros (7,500 dollars) for each offence if they do not comply, the referral court ruled, adding that they would be liable to a maximum fine of 30 million euros.
The three founders -- Frederik Neij, Peter Sunde and Gottfrid Svartholmmen -- and a fourth defendant were found guilty on April 17 by a Swedish court of having promoted copyright infringement through their filesharing site.
They were sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay 30 million kronor (2.72 million euros, 3.56 million dollars) to the movie and recording industry.
They are currently appealing the verdict.
The verdict against them did not concern the website itself, which continues to function.
Founded in 2003, The Pirate Bay makes it possible to skirt copyright fees and share music, film and computer game files using bit torrent technology, or peer-to-peer links offered on the site.
None of the material can be found on The Pirate Bay server itself.
The Pirate Bay claims to have some 22 million users worldwide.
(c) 2009 AFP
Aug 10, 2009 |
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