TorrentFreak

Update (April 24): Usenet-Crawler appears to be back online. When NZBmatrix shut down over piracy concerns in December, hundreds of thousands of Usenet junkies were looking for an alternative indexer. A large number eventually ended up at Usenet-Crawler.com, which offered a decent alternative. Unfortunately for them, the fun didn’t last. Protecting the rights of various [...]

Following a request from Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN, a Dutch bailiff has seized the bank account of a Pirate Bay proxy operator. The owner of the popular proxy site Kuiken.co has been involved in a legal battle with BREIN over the past months, who demand that he shuts down his website. The anti-piracy group seized the funds after the proxy owner failed to pay the penalties that were set out in two preliminary injunctions.

Hollywood’s war against The Pirate Bay website continues in Europe with yet another legal battle. Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN is taking the operator of the popular proxy site Kuiken.co to court, demanding the shutdown of the service as well as a ban on encouraging others to circumvent court-ordered blockades. Tristan, the operator of the proxy, is prepared to fight in court and is running a crowdfunding project to support his legal battle.

Tim Kuik, head of the Hollywood-backed anti-piracy outfit BREIN, has won a WIPO domain name dispute against a Pirate Bay proxy service. The domain timkuik.org was operating its proxy from the address fuck.timkuik.org which according to the decision infringed on a trademark held by the anti-piracy boss. The operator of the Pirate Bay proxy argued that BREIN stalked him and that the site was meant to critique the group, but WIPO says this doesn’t trump the trademark infringement.

Hollywood-backed anti-piracy outfit BREIN has won a landmark case against XS Networks, the former hosting provider of torrent site SumoTorrent. The Court of The Hague ruled that the provider is responsible for damages copyright holders suffered through the torrent site’s activities. The Dutch verdict has far-reaching implications for the liability of hosting providers for the conduct of their clients.

Hollywood-backed anti-piracy outfit BREIN is going after a former hosting provider of SumoTorrent and demanding compensation for the damages caused by the torrent site. Hosting provider XS Networks previously refused to take the site offline or reveal the identity of the owners unless it was presented with a court order. XS Networks’ lawyer Steven Kroesbergen accuses BREIN of deliberately destroying the company to intimidate other hosting providers.

All around the world the copyright lobby is pushing for increased censorship of ‘pirate’ websites, The Pirate Bay in particular. Thus far this has resulted in court-ordered blockades in several countries including the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium. However, in recent months evidence has started to stack up showing that these blocking efforts are futile. BitTorrent traffic is not decreasing and the blockades may actually be counterproductive.