Linking to Location of Pirated Movies the Same as Hosting it

A movie studio has won a lawsuit against a Dutch Usenet community, FTD. In a decision by the court it was ruled that by allowing the publication of the location of pirated movies stored on Usenet, FTD was effectively the same as hosting it on its server.

In this case it was stated that the ‘making available’ of pirated movies was not hosting or storing the movie on its servers, nor was it offering torrents. It this case FTD allowed users to report on the location of files stored on Usenet. It was in fact the publication of this information the movie studio, Eyeworks was seeking to stop.

In May the case was heard at a court in The Hague where FTD lost the case and the court issued an ‘ex parte injunction’, which banned the website from ‘spotting’ the Eyeworks movie. FTD filed an objection on the basis that the provisional measure should not have been issued under Dutch law, but yesterday the court rejected this.

FTD argued that it was not guilty of making available copyright protected material as the files on the Usenet system was not under their control. The court ruled that this was irrelevant. The court stated what was important was whether the behaviour of FTD allows users to download copyright protected files and thus makes such files available to the public. The court ruled that it did.

FTD is also facing another court case this year after actions have been instituted by Dutch anti-piracy group, BREIN. According to papers filed FTD organizes and promoted Usenet content, most of which is illegal, and wants the entire site shut down.