The continuing Brein saga
p2pnet.net News Feature:- The Big Five internet providers won’t hand over the names and addresses of clients who exchange ‘illegal’ music, movies and games on the Net, says a report in the NRC (Dutch newspaper).
The “Five” see their clients’ confidentiality as a unique selling point for their business and won’t hand it over to Brein:
“We only give names and addresses to the police”.
They said Brein should file a petition with the courts. Tim Kuik, head of Brein, told NRC that petitions to get IDs will be filed next week.
It’s expected that in mid-May, a judge will rule so the cases can start in June. But Kazaa lawyer Alberdink Thijm doubts if there’s any legal basis to force internet providers to hand over ID’s.
He’s refering to the Lycos vs Pessers case that’s now heading for the Dutch Supreme Court. Source:
NRC [nld] Short translation by Me.
[Last year, five Canadian ISPs also refused to reveal the names of clients the Big Music cartel wanted to pillory for sharing music online. The CRIA (Canadian Recording Industy Association of America) is, predictably, appealing - Ed]
In the meanwhile, it’s all in the open now, the numbers, the claims and the statements.
Brein has unveiled its plans for attacking a problem everybody agrees won’t ever go away. But how and why did they pick and choose their victims?
The Numbers
Approximately, 50 letters were prepared and sent. Seven were answered and the statement signed. And about 11 letters are awaiting a response. That leaves us with 32 people who haven’t (yet) answered and who will be hauled into court. Brein had already fired off 370,000 IM messages via p2p software at the sharing community. This was their next step.
The Dutch campaign was part of the world-wide offensive involving 11 countries in Europe and Asia.
The Claims
Seven accused have settled for 2,100 euros. The 11 non-respondents will go for the same per person. The 32 are being sued for 500 euros per song and 5,000 euros per day .
The Uploaders
Brein supposedly is going after the “excessive uploaders” among us, which raises a bunch of questions, not to mention a can of worms.
When does a user become a target?
- If downloaders automatically turn to uploaders after finishing the download, are they liable?
- Is there any way to determine where a file came from?
- Have they found a way to proove who was the first to upload a file, or doesn’t it matter who’s first?
- How did they pick their victims?
We hope Brein checked to see if music shared did indeed need its ‘permission’.
By the way, the investigation wasn’t handled by Brein but, rather, the US-based Media Sentry which came up with the 50 IP addresses.
So what happened to the 370,000 IM warnings?
The Providers
At the same press conference Cees Vervoord, ceo of Buma/Stemra (Dutch collective agency), heavily criticized the role of ISP’s, repeatedly using words such as “stealing” and “theft” to describe what the providers actively encourage with advertisements, and he singled out XS4All, the one provider which didn’t cooperated with the forwarding of the letters.
Oddly enough, Tim Kuik acknowledges that they haven’t found any “excessive uploaders” at XS4All.
The Net
Also on hand was president of Universal Music, Netherlands, Theo Roos, who emphasized the industry’s “love” for the internet:
“We love the internet, we’re crazy about it and we’ve already invested a lot in digitizing our music catalog.” he said.
Well, Theo, we’ve already digitized the music, developed the technology, set up the networks and created the market for you.
But where’s the love?
Raymond Blijd – fk2w
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