Victory over Dutch RIAA
p2pnet.net News:- The Tribunal of Harleem, The Netherlands, has dismissed the Stinchting Brein’s attempt to shut zoekmp3.nl down.
Stinchting Brein (you could make a meal out of that : ) is the local RIAA and it’s been going blue trying to stomp Techno Design, which has been running an mp3 search engine for months.
But oops – Techno Design’s lawyer, Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm, who led victory in Kazaa BV’s case, has done it again.
In its ruling, the tribunal threw out the order on the grounds that, "visitors are only sent towards the sites where the files they’re seeking are located".
More surprisingly, the court says according to current Dutch law, as well as to the European copyright directive, "copying (in this case by means of downloading) an infringing mp3 file doesn’t constitute violation of the law".
It adds that "there can be a question of a fraudulent act only if the user of the downloaded file multiplies it or make it available".
Downloading mp3 files is said to be legal in the Netherlands, as is hosting a dedicated search engine.
Sharing files is not, however.
Guillaume Champeau – Paris, France
