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Belgian Music Pirate Slapped With 65,651 Euro in Damages

kaiserA Belgian man was found guilty of posting several Kaiser Chiefs tracks onto the Internet before the official release.

The court ordered the 48-year old to pay the local music rights group SABAM 65,651 euro ($87.500) in damages. The man was further fined 5,500.

In addition to the Kaiser Chiefs tracks, police found a total of 1127 infringing files on the man’s home computer.

He was found not guilty of distributing movies and music for profit.

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  • Mwhahaha

    At least it was a nice reasonable fine then…

    • Too true sir , true

      This much reasonableness is sure to create more love for the industry.

      ? Wonders why Pirates are growing in strength and numbers ..hmmm

    • Conas

      You must be dirty rich to find that reasonable.

      • Romeu Neves

        You must be unfamiliar with irony to write that reply.

  • Anyone

    SABAM should be dismantled

  • http://twitter.com/Pigfarmer44 Simon Bee

    how much do the Kaiser chiefs get? If its anything like kenny rogers, they will get f**k all. And this is right, how??

    • Anyone

      those legal actions usually cost more than the damages granted.

      it is just bullying for bullying’s sake

      • Mwhahaha

        That’s the best kind of bullying!

  • Guesting

    A comedy group called BASTA showed on Belgian TV that Sabam is corrput to the bone. They bought a bunch of stuff at the store, took the name of the products and called Sabam to enquire if those “artists” songs were protected.
    The artists were:
    - Ken Wood (kenwood food processor)
    - Kimberly Clark (a hand dryer)
    - Mr. Cocktail and the Party mix (a cocktail mix)
    - Suzi Wan (a jar of some food item)

    Sabam ended up charging them 539 EUROS in royalty payment for those “artists”…

    Sorry, the only link I could find on youtube has no subtitles…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZAsa9QmQO8

  • Phil Landry

    Come on guys, encrypt you HDD!

    • Mwhahaha

      You might as well just pay for the media if you’re playing to use a VPN which isn’t 100% guaranteed to hide you

      • Mwhahaha

        *paying

      • Danny

        You still wont get your audio in flac or your video in mkv without ripping it yourself.

      • Danny

        You still wont get your audio in flac or your video in mkv without ripping it yourself.

        • Tom

          Then ripp it yourself.

        • Danny

          Ripping MKVs is not a simple task, and you have to break the encryption on the disk first. I would purchase an MKV of a film if it had no shitty DRM but until they offer that I am more inclined to download a film in the format and quality I want than pay full price for it.

          I do own a lot of blu-rays btw but I also download the MKV scene release as its easier to watch wherever I like than just in my front room.

        • O’lay Pirate

          @Danny, http://mashable.com/2012/02/29/hollywood-downloadable-movies/

          “if it had no shitty DRM ” … you don’t want DRM so you can use it on TV/PS3/PC/Mobile etc… right? Well check that mashable post ^__^

        • Danny

          @O’lay

          Ultraviolet is DRM. I will not be able to play back ultraviolet crap on my laptop as I dont have DRM (windows) on there.

      • Desu75

        A non-US VPN will very much hide you from the anti-piracy nuts. $10 per month is still far cheaper than 1 movie. You can get torrent proxies even cheaper. You want to hide your IP from the swarm (both do that) and you want to hide your download from your ISP, both do that as well. I’ve never heard any legitimate reports of a torrent user who uses a foreign VPN getting busted.

    • Guest

      HDD encryption + VPN

  • Rekrul

    65,651 euro ($87.500)? Since when did commas and decimal points become interchangeable when referring to money? I see this more and more and it makes it really confusing.

    • Mwhahaha

      Well if it *IS* $87.50 then he’s laughing, that’s far less than 65,651 euros

    • Danny

      In Europe that is what they do. Please understand that the world isn’t the USA.

      • Desu75

        But it’s in reference to US Dollars. You never use a dot to denote thousands in US Dollars.

    • Danny

      In Europe that is what they do. Please understand that the world isn’t the USA.

    • ndmushroom

      The US (and other ex-British countries) use points for decimal, commas for thousands.
      The rest of the world (excluding the Middle east) use commas for decimal, dots for thousands.
      You’re right, it should be 65.652 euros ($87,500). But don’t be surprised when you see differences between british measurement systems and “continental” ones. It’s the same with the gallons/litres, pounds/kilograms, yards/meters, acres/sq.m etc. etc.

    • http://nucco.org Fanen A.

      In some parts of the world, the comma and decimal point are interchanged, you self-absorbed American. ;)

      • MadocComadrin

        And unless you want to really shortchange/overcharge someone, you should use the format for numbers specified by the country who uses that currency: it should be 65.651 euro ($87,500), not 65,651 euro ($87.500).

  • Desu75

    I’d prefer death over giving SABAM a single dime.

    • Terrysuki

      I very much doubt that.

  • Anonymous

  • Pingback: simran » Belgian Music Pirate Slapped With 65,651 Euro in Damages

  • Anonymous

  • Pingback: Blog ALL » Belgian rightsholders group wants to charge libraries for READING BOOKS TO KIDS

  • Pingback: Belgian rightsholders group wants to charge libraries for READING BOOKS TO KIDS – - Tech News AggregatorTech News Aggregator

  • Pingback: Belgian rightsholders group wants to charge libraries for READING BOOKS TO KIDS | Digital Gadget dan Selular

  • Pingback: Lucreaza De Acasa » Blog Archive » Belgian rightsholders group wants to charge libraries for READING BOOKS TO KIDS

  • http://www.facebook.com/ValhallaLegend Andrew Lee

    lol 65k pocket change I tell ya…

  • Pingback: Belgian rightsholders group wants to charge libraries for READING BOOKS TO KIDS | Pirate Magazine

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