Bad new for Dutch surfers
p2pnet.net News:- The Dutch sttorney general has dealt a major blow to ISP’s in their quest to keep web surfers IDs private.
In a yet unpublished 32 page conclusion, the AG argued for the disclosure of ID’s by ISPs in the case Lycos v Pessers. The AG conclusions are usually a pretty accurate indicator for which way the Dutch Supreme court will rule.
In short: Bad news for the 32 file-sharers and all file sharing sites hosted in Holland
Reports reveal some of the logic behind the AG decision. The AG sees anonymity as having unacceptable effect on digital (e,. business) traffic.Oone excerpt (translated): “What is unacceptable should not be made acceptable”.
“If the ‘message’ is clearly illegal and there are no other means of tracing the ID’s, then ISP’s are oblige to disclose the identity of the alleged perpetrator”, the report goes on. “The ISP is the only one with this unique ability to identify”.
Needless to say Tim Kuik, head of Brein, was beside himself with joy on this untimely development in the Brein-sponsored case against ISP Lycos. Thijm’s office made an uncharacteristically short post about the news on his website.
What does it mean?
The Dutch Supreme Court is highly likely to follow the AG’s advice. The courts were the only thing standing in the way of Brein’s government supported power to track down file sharers, sites and services which it deems “illegitimate”.
With this last barrier falling, it will make it a lot easier for American RIAA-styled sue ‘em all suits to rain down on Dutch surfers and entrepreneurs.
No word yet on when the Dutch Supreme Court will rule.
Raymond Blijd – fk2w
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
quest – Lycos ‘Personal Data’ decision, p2pnet, June 24, 2005
June 27th, 2005 at 9:51 am
I am a Dutchy, this government funded anti-piracy program BREIN has always been powerless to prosecute copyright pirates.
They make great claims to scare off the mass of uninformed users but eventually they have never sued anyone.
The article lists p2p as being targeted, programs like Kazaa broadcast the file names and id when it is being downloaded, I can imagine the few people left on the kazaa network to being targeted.
From what I can understand is that torrent files are shared anonymous, the isp can only track the amount of torrents and traffic but they cannot see what file it is, so it shouldn’t be possible for them to prosecute you by that.
Still, a black page in the history of digital rights.