Dutch court clamps down on Pirate Bay
A Dutch court on Thursday ordered Swedish file sharing website The Pirate Bay to remove links to material owned by members of a Netherlands-based music and film copyright protection group.
A referral court in Amsterdam 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 ($7,500) 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.
The three founders - Frederik Neij, Peter Sunde and Gottfrid Svartholm Varg - and a fourth defendant were found guilty on April 17th 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 $3.56 million) 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.
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A referral court in Amsterdam 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 ($7,500) 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.
The three founders - Frederik Neij, Peter Sunde and Gottfrid Svartholm Varg - and a fourth defendant were found guilty on April 17th 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 $3.56 million) 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.
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