Dutch Court Rules Against the Pirate Bay

Dutch Court Rules Against the Pirate Bay
26 October, 2009

Must prevent Dutch users from being able to access copyrighted material, and was given 3 months to remove a list of torrents from the Swedish BitTorrent tracker site.

A Dutch court has ruled against Swedish BitTorrent tracker site the Pirate Bay, ordering that it immediately begin preventing Dutch users from accessing copyrighted material on the site, and giving it 3 months to remove a list of torrents or face of fine of 5000 euros ($7512 USD) p/person p/day.

The judgment was the result of an appeal of an earlier ruling in which the site’s founders were ordered to block Dutch users entirely or face a fine of 30,000 euros ($42,906 USD) p/day. In that case, because it couldn’t physically find and serve them with a summons, Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN took the unusual step of of notifying the Pirate Bay’s founders via Facebook and Twitter. They were found guilty in absentia and vowed to appeal.

“None of us have access to even block everything, so good luck with that,” co-founder Peter Sunde twittered at the time. “I wrote a letter to the court telling them that.”

The court also ordered that the three co-founders cover BREIN’s court costs.

It’s not yet clear if the three will appeal the case.

Stay tuned.

:source: Source: Dutch Court Rules Against the Pirate Bay