Anti-Piracy Outfit Threatens ShareConnector Admin at his Front Door
Written by enigmax on November 14, 2007Having failed to encourage massive punishment against the administrator of eDonkey link site ‘ShareConnector’ in a criminal trial, anti-piracy outfit BREIN has once more resorted to traditional bully tactics - by turning up on his doorstep and threatening him, face to face.
Back in 2004, ShareConnector was an eDonkey force to be reckoned with. As purely a link site (like the vast majority of BitTorrent sites), ShareConnector carried no copyright materials. However, this didn’t stop Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN from pressurizing the FIOD-ECD - Fiscal Investigation Unit of the Dutch Police - to investigate and eventually shut down ShareConnector.
Initially, ShareConnector’s host had refused to shut down the site stating correctly that offering links is not a crime. However December 2004 saw ShareConnector and another site, Releases4U, raided by the FIOD-ECD, resulting in the seizure of equipment and the arrest of 8 people. At the time, BREIN director Tim Kuik explained they were done waiting: “Our patience was up, after which we went to the authorities” he said.
According to P2PNet, Kuik, going for the jugular, asserted that the ShareConnector admin, Adi, should get up to 4 years in jail as he hid behind ‘false reasoning that illegal files are actually hosted on different servers and that the actual exchange doesn’t take place on their own servers’, which is, of course, a completely and utterly false assertion on Kuik’s part.
Eventually, after taking nearly 2 years to come to court, the result for BREIN and the FIOD-ECD was a disaster. The admin of ShareConnector was found completely innocent and just a couple of small fines of approximately $350 were handed out to the admins of Releases4U for uploading copyright material. The FIOD-ECD failed to provide any evidence to prove ShareConnector was involved in copyright infringement nor enough to prove that either organization was criminal in nature.
December 19th 2006 saw the triumphant return of ShareConnector, around 2 years after it was shuttered by the police but the return was not to be permanent. Not content with accepting that a criminal trial had taken place at which Adi and ShareConnector were found to be completely legal, BREIN resorted to the tactics it knows best and has had most success with - common bullying.
On Monday November 5th 2007, representatives from BREIN knocked on Adi’s door and threatened him face to face with potentially financially punishing civil action. On November 12th 2007, ShareConnector shut down for good.
The sad message on the site’s homepage now reads:
Last Monday the guys from BREIN visited me at home to convince me to close ShareConnector or else they will start a civil proceeding with a claim. Of course, this does not mean I agree with their point of view, it’s just that I can’t afford taking any risks.
As of today, November 12, 2007 I decided to close down. If there is anything new to report, you will be informed.
Thank you for all your support and understanding.
Next on the FIOD-ECD hitlist are OiNK’s seized servers. They’re likely to find that the situation is exactly the same as it was with ShareConnector, i.e no copyright materials were stored on it, so it’s not easy to see where they will succeed against OiNK where they previously failed. There is no offense of ‘facilitation’ under UK copyright law.
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why do they keep going after people with no evidence, surely they must know by now… or, are people really that daft? it must cost them tons of money doing all these raids etc, going to court. what’s the point. maybe they just hope that “this time we’ll get lucky and put one guy behind bars and that will scare the rest of the worlds p2p users?”
why dont they join oink and live the good life instead! tards.:D
thanks for the morning news
Interesting Google keyword whoring with the “hitlist”.
This is f*cked up, the dutch law explicitly stated that ShareConnector is legal. BREIN should know better than to disrespect the law.
Talking about hypocrisy, BREIN itself wants P2P-sites to obey the law (in their opinion: to stop the spread of NONCOPYRIGHTED metadata-files), but they themselves don’t respect the law.
BREIN, go screw yourself. And rid us of your stupidity.
~Fransw
Its funny how they can take away your life and work for 2-3 years just because a private lobby states something and demands a raid..
Under “German Law” this could be considered “Nötigung.” Do the Dutch have a similair law? This is hardly the normal way to state you are filing a civil complaint. After what I can only assume is years of legal correspondence, Brein must know who Adi’s attorney is.
when will they learn..
He should have answered his door with a shotgun.[quote comment="213219"]when will they learn..[/quote]
When people come to the door armed.
Maybe we should go pay Tim Kuyk a visit at home, let’s see how he likes to be threatened face to face.
I wonder where he lives, does anybody know?
He Kuik … shall i turm myself in ?
I am in for a trial.
P2PISHERETOSTAY@LIVE.NL
turm = turn
Damnit some of these geeks need to get ball checks performed, to shut down over threats is just like saying OK, i’m guilty, I’ll shut it down…
When can we get a European wide law to stop this bullying? It seems that any organisation with loads of cash can do this.
Perhaps BREIN can be taken to court and charged with intimidation? Any Dutch lawyers prepared to offer their services for free?
A site has shut down? Go do your work, hydra.
[quote comment="213264"]Maybe we should go pay Tim Kuyk a visit at home, let’s see how he likes to be threatened face to face.
I wonder where he lives, does anybody know?[/quote]
Good idea, shouldn’t be too hard to find him on Google Maps/Earth.
[quote comment="213323"]When can we get a European wide law to stop this bullying? It seems that any organization with loads of cash can do this.
Perhaps BREIN can be taken to court and charged with intimidation? Any Dutch lawyers prepared to offer their services for free?[/quote]
Intimidation, no won’t fly, but harassment may be pursued… even thought its a civil matter as what most of these trials are.
[quote comment="213341"][quote comment="213264"]Maybe we should go pay Tim Kuyk a visit at home, let’s see how he likes to be threatened face to face.
I wonder where he lives, does anybody know?[/quote]
Good idea, shouldn’t be too hard to find him on Google Maps/Earth.[/quote]
Posting it would be grand but keep in mind… posting it here …. oh fuck it… post that assholes address VIA LINK
I really wish people like this would knock at my door, and hopefully they are well built… I’m running low on fresh meat.
Blood juice anyone?
[quote comment="213345"]I really wish people like this would knock at my door, and hopefully they are well built… I’m running low on fresh meat.
Blood juice anyone?[/quote]
What happens if you can’t get up the basement stairs fast enough and your mother answers the door, tough guy?
Pretty simple answer to this, just start visiting those guys at home and punch them in the kidneys. Then tell them next time they bother someone they will get kicked in the throat.
What would have happened if he chose not to answer the door?
Well, there’s only one good way to counter bully-tactics.
If only someone would publish the names and addresses of those individuals who showed up at this mans front door, we could pay them back in-kind with interest.
You’d be surprised how quickly tough-guys turn tail after you’ve shown up to their house and given them a ‘tune-up’ when they least expect it (like when they step out of their house to go to work in the morning.)
Drawing the anger of the internet hate machine will turn your life upside down. Unless you have curtains and/or a happy dog.
I can’t understand why he shut down. I mean, they couldn’t do anything to him. I mean, he could have sued them for harassment because the threatened at his own home, right?
[quote comment="213343"][quote comment="213323"]When can we get a European wide law to stop this bullying? It seems that any organization with loads of cash can do this.
Perhaps BREIN can be taken to court and charged with intimidation? Any Dutch lawyers prepared to offer their services for free?[/quote]
Intimidation, no won’t fly, but harassment may be pursued… even thought its a civil matter as what most of these trials are.[/quote]
I hope you are talking about Dutch law here. So many ignorant Americans post comments which are only relevant if American law applies. (i.e. only in America).
When sSome suit shows up at your front door and threatens to sue your ass off, what do these guys do? They fold. Maybe this guy was just tired of the years of bullshit, but that chickenshit Deimos just caved in for no good reason.
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