In the criminal case the operator of ShareConnector, aDi, came out as the winner in 2007 and was released from all charges. However, the Department of Justice decided to appeal the case two years later and charged aDi and six other admins with membership of a criminal organization and assisting in the distribution of copyrighted material.

However, instead of getting a conviction this time around the case turned into a total embarrassment for the Department of Justice. Last summer the court decided to reopen the case and summoned the public prosecutor as it doubted the legitimacy of the criminal prosecution which relied on evidence brought in by local anti-piracy outfit BREIN.

Yesterday the lengthy court battle came to an end with the Court of The Hague dismissing the case (Dutch).

The Court concluded that the authorities failed to provide any evidence to prove ShareConnector was involved in mass copyright infringement, nor enough to prove that it was criminal in nature. In addition, the judge ruled that the initial arrests were unlawful as the evidence provided by BREIN was insufficient.

The Court ruled that the public prosecutor should have conducted an independent investigation instead of relying blindly on the ‘evidence’ provided by BREIN. Since this didn’t happen, the evidence used in the case was seen as illegitimate.

“It’s incredible that it took the court six years and numerous trials to conclude that the allegations from BREIN should not be taken seriously. It was a setup from the very beginning since the deaf from BREIN didn’t want to play clean and instead used the blind dogs from the Department of Justice,” aDi told TorrentFreak in a response. “This is a victory,” he added, “for now and for the future.”

In a response to the dismissed case BREIN’s head Tim Kuik came out with a statement emphasizing that ShareConnector itself was found to be an unlawful service.

BREIN won their civil case against the site in March this year. In that case the court ruled that the operator of ShareConnector wasn’t guilty of copyright infringement, but that the site must remain closed for good since it facilitated copyright infringement.

The ShareConnector case touches on a recurring topic in file-sharing related investigations – the close cooperation between private anti-piracy groups and judicial authorities. When an arrest is made or a raid is carried out, the police are often assisted by members of the local anti-piracy lobby group.

It sometimes appears as if BREIN, MPAA, RIAA, BPI and others are part of the authorities, but in fact they have their own agenda and absolutely no reason to be neutral investigators. It’s good to see that the Court of The Hague spotted this illegitimate process in the ShareConnector case. The Department of Justice is not a puppet of anti-piracy outfits.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

What followed was more than 5 years of legal battles in both civil and criminal court cases. In the criminal case the operator of ShareConnector came out as the winner in 2007 and was released from all charges.

The court ruled that the authorities failed to provide any evidence to prove ShareConnector was involved in copyright infringement nor enough to prove that it was criminal in nature. In addition, the judge ruled that the initial arrests were unlawful as the evidence provided by BREIN was insufficient.

After this decision ShareConnector came back online. However, this comeback was short lived as local anti-piracy outfit BREIN initiated a civil lawsuit, trying to prevent the operator from keeping the site up and running. This lawsuit was won by BREIN but the ShareConnector operator decided to appeal the ruling.

This week a court announced the verdict of the appeal and it came out negative once again. Although the court ruled that the operator of ShareConnector wasn’t guilty of copyright infringement, it said the site must remain closed for good. The judge ruled that sites that offer hash links (like .torrent links) are facilitating copyright infringement, an unlawful behavior.

The outcome of the case is disappointing to aDI, the operator of the site, who further said that it didn’t surprise him. He had hoped, however, that the ruling in the appeal would be in line with recent cases in Spain where P2P indexing sites were deemed legal.

“The results are just what I expected, so nothing surprising here considering all the similar recent cases with just about the same conclusion we see here. The trend has been set by those ignorant old judges that fail to see the logic, contradicting the rulings from Spain,” said aDi in a response to the verdict.

“Unfortunately this is not Spain, the Dutch legal system is dysfunctional, lacking logic and professionalism. Why does it take more than five years and so many criminal trials to prove a simple fact? How come all the pathetic private organizations whose main interest is money and not the artists, get away with lies and deceptions spreading their propaganda in the media?,” he added.

What remains for the ShareConnector operator is the appeal of the criminal case that will be heard in April. In 2007 he was released from all charges, but after two years the Department of Justice filed the appeal. The charges in this case are membership of a criminal organization and (assisting in) the distribution of copyrighted material. The additional charges of copyright infringement were dropped last week.

In the upcoming trial Dr. Johan Pouwelse will appear as an expert witness on behalf of the defendant. Since downloading copyrighted films and music is not illegal in The Netherlands, he is expected to testify that there are various ways for eDonkey users to disable the upload feature. Whatever the outcome of the criminal trial, ShareConnector will never return.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

BREIN had successfully convinced the FIOD-ECD – Fiscal Investigation Unit of the Dutch Police – to shut down both sites and take the servers into custody for a thorough inspection, hoping to find traces of criminal activities.

When the case finally went 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 court ruled that 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. In addition, the judge ruled that the initial arrests were unlawful as the evidence provided by BREIN was insufficient.

Despite this setback the Department of Justice announced back in 2007 that it would appeal the verdict, but in the years that followed nothing happened, until today. More than two years after the ShareConnector admin was released from all charges, the Department of Justice filed the appeal.

One can only wonder why it took this long. The case itself and the evidence presented during the trial hasn’t changed. In fact, the only thing that’s changed is the media attention on file-sharing cases and the increased efforts of organizations such as BREIN to take on sites that host links to copyright infringing works.

The ShareConnector admin, who briefly put his site back online in 2007 before BREIN managed to close it through a civil dispute, told TorrentFreak that he was surprised to find out that the case will be appealed after all.

“It’s understandable that the DoJ tries everything in their power to cover up their illegal, unprofessional and unfair doings by spreading misinforming propaganda in the mainstream news. They can’t deal with such issues because they don’t know what the Internet is about, nor do they seem to care,” the admin told TorrentFreak.

“They failed before and they will fail again. It’s about time they realize that you can’t control the future, if you don’t understand the past,” he added.

Besides the appeal of the criminal trial, ShareConnector will also be facing BREIN again as the site’s admin decided to appeal the earlier decision that forced him to close the site. “This year is really packed with lawsuits for me with hopefully some conclusive results about the legality of eD2k indexing sites in the Netherlands,” he writes.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

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.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.