The Court of Appeals in Amsterdam, Netherlands, judged that knowingly operating a website which enhances the availability of MP3 files on the Internet is illegal. Techno Design, the company behind Zoemp3.nl, created a search engine that linked to copyrighted MP3 files. Until yesterday’s ruling, this type of search engine was not illegal; providing copyrighted MP3 files were not on Techno Design’s (or similar owner’s) server.

The ruling is important for two reasons; it establishes that linking to a substantial number of unauthorized works is illegal, and cease and desist notifications are not necessary for a large scale operation. Techno Design had won a lower court ruling which stated cease and desist notifications were required prior to any enforcement.

BREIN, the Dutch anti-piracy organization, had a very broad interpretation of this ruling in their press release:

“The court decided it is unlawful for a site to knowingly make structural and systematic use of the availability of illegal mp3 music files on the Internet.”

Although this ruling doesn’t directly affect any BitTorrent search engines, there are some similarities between the technologies. This has some BitTorrent administrators in the Netherlands are keeping a close eye on whether this is a legal stepping stone for BREIN.

“Rex”, administrator MyBitTorrent.com, is cautious however believes that while there are similarities, the differences should keep BREIN at bay.

“I think Dutch BitTorrent sites will be 'safe' for now. The biggest Dutch sites haven't been contacted by BREIN yet, so they do not need to worry. Also ZoekMP3.nl was linking to intellectual property and sites like myBittorrent.com only link to metadata, which is NOT copyrighted!”

This story is filed in these Slyck News categories
Legal/Courtroom :: Court Rulings/Decisions

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