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Thursday, 25 October 2012 20:28

Webhost found guilty because of SumoTorrent

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The Dutch anti-piracy organization Brein has won a multi-year effort after a big court victory that could have far-reaching consequences for hosting companies in the EU and perhaps in the world. According to a verdict from the International Court of Justice in Hague, which is in charge of the process because XS Networks was found responsible for copyright infringement simply for hosting the Sumo Torrent site, the court gave the right to Brein to shut down XS Networks.

Specifically, Brein once asked XS Networks to shut down Sumo Torrent. To do this they presented data on the site owner. XS Networks, of course, refused to do so without a court order. In the meantime, Sumo Torrent relocated to a Ukrainian server making it completely inaccessible to Brein. Brein blamed XS Networks for this move as well. The Hague court agreed with them, believing that Sumo Torrent was obviously a pirated venture with clearly illegal content on their servers, and that the XS Networks should have complied with Brein's request.

In addition to court costs, XS Networks now has to pay the penalty for copyright infringement committed by Sumo Torrent while they were on their servers, but the total amount has yet to be decided. The verdict is far reaching in that it entitles associations such Brein to request and obtain the personal details of the owner of a page that violated copyrights and to seek their closure. Hosting companies are expected to estimate by themselves, without the court's decision, if it's actually an illegal site and on the basis of this judgment to decide whether to shut down customer sites and share their personal information to third parties.

[Ed – this is a move that the MPAA and other copyright holders have been trying for a long time. They have always wanted the right to go directly to the ISPs and hosting providers with nothing more than an accusation and no legal grounds. The problem is that the written laws are supposed to prevent this and limit the liability of ISPs and hosts from this type of persecution. The fact that the courts are no longer upholding these laws is very concerning in the extreme and makes us wonder what other laws protecting privacy will be swept aside…]

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Read 2552 times Last modified on Thursday, 25 October 2012 20:38

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