BitTorrent Host Loses in Court, Site Moves to Sweden
Written by Ernesto on July 13, 2008A hosting provider who refused to hand over the personal details of a torrent site administrator has been told by a judge to comply. EuroAccess who hosted the site Torrent.to must also pay all of the costs associated with bringing the case to court. Meanwhile, torrent.to moved to Sweden, where the site continues to operate.
Until a year ago, The Netherlands was considered to be a safe haven for BitTorrent sites. However, due to legal pressure from the Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN, this has changed dramatically.
It started last year when LeaseWeb, once one of the largest BitTorrent hosts, was ordered to shut down the BitTorrent tracker everlasting.nu. This led to a an exodus of BitTorrent sites such as BTjunkie, Demonoid, What.cd and Waffles.fm, some left voluntarily, and others were urged by Leaseweb.
Leaseweb did however file for an appeal against BREIN, which they lost last week. The Amsterdam court upheld their earlier decision, and the web hosting company was ordered to shut down the BitTorrent tracker everlasting.nu, and hand over the admin’s personal information.
Now, only a few days later, another hosting company, EuroAccess, faces a similar judgment. The court ruled that it was obvious that the website torrent.to was facilitating copyright infringement, and ordered EuroAccess to take the site down, and hand over the personal details of the site owner to BREIN.
This ruling is different from others we’ve seen so far in the Netherlands, because the judge simply assumed that the torrent site was “illegal”, something that many lawyers might oppose. BREIN didn’t have to prove this part, and it suggests that webhosting companies will have to comply every time BREIN asks them to take down a site and hand over the personal details of their customers.
“Hosting providers have to take responsibility,” said Tim Kuik, managing director of BREIN. “EuroAccess hosts several illegal sites and servers, and didn’t respond to inquiries from BREIN and others. This has to change.”
EuroAccess can probably look forward to more takedown request from BREIN, and this “victory” for BREIN will probably result in more court cases and new clientele for Swedish webhosting providers. Torrent.to remains unharmed, and moved to Sweden, which has now become the new “safe haven” for torrent sites.
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26 Responses
Same SOBs up to their same tricks.. someone should take a blunt object and see if they can spill Briens brains…
I really wonder how much of a “safe haven” Sweden is, considering TPB moved their hosting away from here.. :-/
cheers!
ezee.se
I suppose that the real problem with the power of BREIN and all is that they have the power for propaganda, whereas file-sharers really have no way to get their message out to the public.
@2, people are trying in different small ways, but its a hard uphill (more like vertical)fight as (most of) the media is owned and used to spread their propaganda + their twisted views.
There’s going to be a LOT more bad news for file sharers before things start to change for the better.
I don’t like it when torrent sites moves to Sweden (I live here), because it’s not good if all sites in the end are gathered at one location, and with the debate about the FRA-law right now it doesn’t feel any better… Who knows what the future holds?
Netherlands F**ked Up LoL
Over 100 countries to move. No Worries ;)
YOU need to take responsibility, not web hosting companies.
Shift the blame, sue your customers, do whatever you think you have to get us ‘pirates’ but I smile, because I will ALWAYS download, I will ALWAYS give your crap to my friends, I will ALWAYS ruin your day.
Your pathetic against the swarm.
@6 Did you ALWAYS sound like such an idiot?
It remains to be seen if Sweden will remain a safe haven for long.
I didn’t know “facilitating copyright infringement” was a crime. It may sound good, but where’s the law against it? Even if some countries have such a contrived law, it certainly would not be “obvious” that the tracker had broken it, without any examination of the site or the facts. This is like being sentenced without a [fair] trial, and the case should be dismissed on that account alone.
In any case we all must be guilty of facilitation, merely by discussing file sharing in a positive light, as it helps or encourages the practice. The mere mention of a filename or providing a link must also incriminate. Google must have massive guilt for linking to torrents and other “unauthorized” files. Ahahahahaaa
If they hosted onsite unauthorized files it would be facilitating copyright infringement, otherwise not; it’s just like a search engine
ignorant judges
With all this shit going on I’m starting to think about investing in overseas hosting. Somewhere nice and poor where people are more worried about important things in life like making sure their family has food and water each day instead of taking everyone to court.
ChadTorrent maybe?
this world is really starting to grate in on me.l can’t wait for it to explode into a shower of gamma sparks !
and end this pathetic human existence
forever. this world has seriously gone to shit,and l can’t see anyway it will change for the better ever.
cynical lawyers continue to exploit ignorant judges. Western law isn’t capable of giving fair trials in cases like these. At the moment the money is talking far too loudly.
The European EFF really needs to get its act (and funding) together.
This “facilitating copyright infringement” BS again?
Sue Google then, it facilitates copyright infringement by helping me find infringing material. Oh, also sue the ISPs, they’re facilitating my infringing by giving me access to the files. Also sue Mozilla, since their browser allows me to access the internet. And not to mention Microsoft, or the manufacturer of the computer.
@14
word
Thats great news more of your sites will fall too soon, we are watching you alecy.com
Will things ever change for the better? These things take time guys. Trying to rally support can be very frustrating… especially when it seems that no-one is listening. But, when the time is right… the silent masses will shout out at the top of their voices. Torrentfreaks duty is to keep digging up dirt to keep the debate alive… and to remind us why this is so important!
Sweden is crap.
As many is telling us: Sweden might not be a safe haven for a much longer time.. BUT, since the people in Sweden really likes downloading, i still think its a safe Haven.. We have around 20-30 Private Trackers, and there is still some that pops up (goes down fast cause no one wants them anymore)..!
What I ment by my last post, is that its many who still stand up for Piracy in Sweden, and the Goverment wont have the power to take it down.. It’s like 49 against 51 percent between the Blue and the Red in Sweden.. If any of them take away the piracy, it will be around 35 against 65 percent :)
Only when these people are on their deathbed will they realise how they’ve wasted their entire life being a greedy corporate twat.
Where else is “safe”?
Iran?
China?
Korea?
Indonesia?
Um, wtf? Sweden = wiretap.
lol, BREIN is doing some weird shit
they don’t have the powers like the RIAA but they act like one
BREIN is just a company, so can’t we take it down? cuz hey, they are just a company
If your looking for a site that is completely safe & secure, and is in a real safe haven check out
http://TehConnection.eu, Sweden’s laws are diminishing! CANADA IS THE FUTURE!
Am I the only want that thinks this is stupid: “hand over the personal details of the site owner to BREIN.”.
Guess this Judge has never heard of Identity fraud.
If I was going to host a torrent site I would use a stolen Identity. That simple. So if your provider does get ordered to handle over the details the incident victim will get blamed instead of you. Of course the Judge probably wont buy the whole “he stole my identity” bit so your be in the clear. To be real sneaky transfer ownership of the site every so often to another person in a different country. Make it really hard to trace it all back. :)
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