P2P Sites’ Injunctions Overturned, Anti-Piracy Group Fined
Written by enigmax on November 24, 2009Preliminary injunctions against two file-sharing portals have been overturned, paving the way for a re-opening. The sites’ lawyers have proven that hard drive evidence collected during a controversial raid against the sites’ admin is worthless, and the anti-piracy group involved has been fined by the court for acting in bad faith.
Earlier this year, TorrentFreak reported on computer science student, Juan Jose Carrasco Colonel. The 26 year-old resident of Bonar, Spain, ran two eD2K file-sharing link sites known as Elitelmula and Etmusica. Both were closed some months ago after action by music and anti-piracy group SGAE led to a court order being served on the sites’ host.
Then in May, Juan had a home visit from individuals who said they were from the court. Handing Juan documentation he didn’t understand, they gave the impression that they had a warrant to enter his home and make an inspection of his computers and hard drives.
In fact, it turned out one was a lawyer for SGAE, the second a SGAE computer expert and another a clerk, who had come looking for the stats from Elitemula and Etmusica, which supposedly reflected the downloads of music made via links on those sites between September and December 2007.
They searched the entire house, going through both Juan’s and family members’ possessions. Finally Juan managed to get lawyer David Bravo on the telephone who, along with Javier de la Cueva, were the legal team for P2P developer Pablo Soto. Bravo confirmed that the supposed warrant did not authorize the individuals to be in Juan’s house and ordered them to leave.
TorrentFreak has been in contact with Javier de la Cueva, who was able to give us an interesting update on the case.
A Spanish court, after initially submitting to requests by SGAE that both Etmusica and Elitemula should be closed and hard drives seized for evidence, has now revoked the decision after demands by Juan’s lawyers. The hard drive evidence was dismissed and both sites can now be reopened.
“The reason for reopening the websites is that a hyperlink, per se, does not violate intellectual property law,” Javier de la Cueva told TorrentFreak.
On the dismissal of the hard drive ‘evidence’, Javier explained that this was due to their proof that it is impossible for the site’s users’ sharing statistics to be stored in it.
“As I said in the hearing: how can it be that an interchange between a Polish and an
Argentinian would be registered in [Juan's] hard disk if not even a single bit passes through my client’s website? I explained to the judge how P2P networks function and he was convinced that this evidence is impossible and useless, so he annulled the previous resolution held by the same court.”
Javier also explained that it’s important to note that SGAE requested injunctions to be taken out on Etmusic and Elitemula without summoning their client.
“When this happens and injunctions are adopted, the defendant should have the opportunity of opposition, and this is what we have won,” he told us.
Furthermore, SGAE ‘forgot’ to tell the court that earlier criminal proceedings brought by PROMUSICAE to achieve preliminary injunctions against both sites, had already been dismissed.
Due to this unfortunate bout of amnesia, SGAE has been fined 500 Euros for ‘mala fides’ (operating in bad faith) as it was concluded that there was an intention to avoid the defendants right to a defense.
Previously: Vuze BitTorrent Client Boosts KickassTorrents’ Visitors
Next: 30,000 Internet Users to Receive File-Sharing Cash Demands
59 Responses
Only 500 euro???
wheee
Good news, but man …. 500 euro? This should have been a lot larger with jail time.
Win!
Should have been 50.000 euros
500 Euros = $750
Better than nothing, but should have been larger.
Great news! But like others have said… should have been a thousand times into what they have to pay.
Oh well, lets just concentrate on the good news and celebrate!
better then nothing?? considering the low ass fine it might well been nothing.
If I were to enter another mans house unlawfully and attempt to take their posessions, I would probably get jailed and fined an extremely large sum of money. They get 500 Euro fine. What a joke…. can this seriously get any worse?
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Wow, Anti P2P getting fined. 500 euros is nothing if not a start, but at least its that.
If only they’d been fined for 500,000 euros for mala fides…
Its nice to see that the Anti P2P people got fined. But I agree that 500 euros isnt much, but it is a start. :3
Cost of downloading 1 song from a torrent : $18,500 + lawyer fees
Cost of unlawful entry, theft of property ranging over $100.00,and operating in bad faith: $750.00
The reaction of pro-torrent people actually shocked by this: Priceless.
Seriously guys… lobbyists have corrupted these idiots. The fact that they even got fined must have gotten a few lobbyists fired from Sony and Warner.
only 500 euros?
Thats not a fine. How about the kind of fines “infringers” get?
Wow, I think I’ll go to Spain and break into peoples houses and steal their music and movies. Seems to be the only way to get away with it now.
Not
Just more proof of the corruption of the court systems. Yes, its a victory, but lawyers make that kind of money in about two hours of stealing from their clients.
I would of considered it a home invasion. But 750 is an hourly wage to those guys, I bet they laughed it up as they where walking out the door.
This is probably just the beginning, since impersonating law enforcement in possession of a search warrant is serious offense with jail time involved.
what about being charged with illegal trespassing? impersonating a Peace Officer? it seems to me, using a fake warrant to enter and search a home, is the same as pulling over a driver with a fake Police badge, and searching his car.
I would sue the crap out of them if I were Juan. He should set up a donate link on his site for legal fees so people can help pay for his lawyers fees and then sue the sh!t out of them. I’ll donate $500 right now!
The 500 Euros is the fine for mala fides, nothing to do with entering his house.
After having the revocation, now comes the fun part for the trespassing
“Seriously guys… lobbyists have corrupted these idiots.”
Ya The enemies of our societies are these corporations of parasites. They must be destroyed executive by executive, investor by investor and brick by brick now before they finish destroying or societies and our justice system already seriously damaged by them.
If these anti-piracy groups were in Indonesia they wouldn’t get fined, they would get whipped 500 times by the cane!!!!
$750 is pocket change for them. Should have been jail time, its where criminals like them belong.
I wonder how they would fare in jail/prison? Oops, you dropped your soap!
what can we do with 500 Euros??
jesus
like previously stated, this fine is a joke! should have been 5,000,000 euro just as a starter. to me this still shows that in the courts eyes the ‘alleged theft of a song’ is worth more than any rights a person has.
Judge should have sent all three to jail for impersonation and fraud for no less than 5 years.
Great news except they should of been harder on those greedbag industry workers.
Boycott MPAA,RIAA,and their stooges.
Buy used movies instread of new.
Fuck Greedbag Industry !!!!
Now it’s his turn to take them to court.
>> 29
I agreed with you . not only that , the lawyer will also lose his license .
look like the judge side with them
5,000,000 is what I agreed and some jail time too but Mafia cant touched by law
If I recall, The Pirate Bay caught some cops on videocam during the bust. But even if I recall incorrectly, I would advise setting up a live-to-secure-online-server/account camera system around your equipment and if something happens, post the images of the guys entering, searching and removing possessions to You Tube and elsewhere.
People behaving questionably HATE the limelight, being caught for all to see. What with the legal letters published, etc., that’s probably in part why TPB was so targeted.
I’m still waiting for industry names and even addresses too. Someone on here once said they have a list. Well, let’s put it out there.
They should have been fined 5,000,000 EUR for mala fides.
The part about house trespassing is less clear. From what I’ve read in several sources, the search was semi-pseudo-quasi-legal. Poor Juan didn’t know how to react when he saw those gangsters knocking on his door. He allowed them to enter first & gave them the passwords. THEN he called his lawyer. Of course, the latter step should have been the first, and the invasion part would have been avoided.
score at least one for us, for once
The Jew Lawyers piss out $500 euros worth of booze every time they use the bathroom.
What a nice way to rub our faces in the double standard.
Your worthless, stupid little goyim rights are worth much less than the Copyright Mafia’s valuable trademarks.
Damn these people stop going after the torrent site.
http://www.likemyscreenshot.com
I am really upset that they did not get jail time. Now I am going to download even more torrents.
It’s kind of funny when you see the anti piracy groups who are completely in the wrong both reasonedmind and neostyles STFU rofl.
what a joke they should have got put in jail. and raped
Well the evidence of how shady anti-piracy groups is growing larger. But as always, they just get a slap on the wrist.
Those pesky Anti-piracy goons at it again… Homey shouldn’t have answered the door. Problem solved…
Great report TF!
What the hell?
Companies act in mala fides and are fined just 500 Euro.
Users act in bona fides and are sentenced jail time and completed harassed by these companies and their bribed judges?
If you download music, you will have to pay 5000 or however many dollars a song in fines.
If you illegally raid someone’s home and possesions in “bad faith”, you get a slap on a wrist and a fine of 500 euros.
I quite frankly am not getting this.
The fine should have been 500.000 euro per accuse.
@37
Try and keep your racial slurs away from this site. It’s not wanted and just shows what a moron you are
It might only be 500€ but it’s still a big knock on the head to the MAFIAA, showing them that they can’t just ask people to bend over so they can rape them easily.
Hopefully it’s gonna open some eyes in other countries around the world about how P2P actually works.
Oh and how these companies actually works too.
gorgot to add that
A judge listened to the defendant in a file sharing case? :o
Maybe not all hope is lost.
so magnet links on BT sites should work out as well, since not a single byte of information passes through the site…
how is it they weren’t charged for misrepresentation and impersonating an officer of the court plus if they lied on the dismissal of the original case how is that not abuse of process and only a 500$ fine. Generally penalties are levelled as a deterrent to doing it again 500$ is a joke. I hope this guy goes after them for damages for all the site downtime, legal bills etc. If they want pirates to pay for wrong doing they should be required to do so as well when they are wrong.
Wow, total ownage!
Next step: sue SGAE for trespassing and some other crimes (like pretending to be officials)…
Awesome.
the MAFIAA are the real animals
thats awesome news… many of you think 500eu is too little… but actually its not the amount its the fact that the court agreed they operated in bad faith… making way for other cases to say hey these ppl have a record of acting in bad faith they need to prove what it is they are accusing ppl of.
if u get into a car accident and the other driver gets a fine and you dont it pretty much says the other drive is at fault.
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Actually he should sue them!
Really, when people show up at your door with a court-order, just ask if you can make a call first to the judge who ordered it. This is allowed here in Belgium. Also, if their are no police-officers with them you can just say you first want to see some police. So when they try to sue my website http://www.streamingtvsitcoms.com/ they will need to come with some real court-orders.
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