James Delahunty
21 Jun 2006 13:05
The owner of ShareConnector, a popular ed2k link indexing site that was shut down in late 2004, is to appear in court charged with "professionally (complicity) copyright violation and participation in a criminal organization." The eDonkey2000 network, which relies on a number of ed2k servers, remains very popular to this day even facing rivals such as BitTorrent.
ShareConnector was not an eD2K server, nor did it offer any files either legitimate or otherwise. It offered a simple service to its users; sharing and indexing of "eD2K links" which basically point an eD2K client like eMule to a particular file on the network. Just like clicking a hyperlink to go to another website, a simple click on a link would fire up your eD2K client, which would then use the data to search for the particular file on the network.
Dutch anti-piracy foundation BREIN was behind action taken against ShareConnector in 2004. Now, finally this case will go ahead and the legality of eD2K links can be determined. The administrator and owner of ShareConnector is to appear in a Rotterdam court this Friday. The defense will tackle some major holes in the prosecution's case.
One claim is that illegal files were stored on the servers, which of course is false. "If eDonkey links were illegal by law, we would never have started a site like ShareConnector," the administrator and owner of ShareConnector told Slyck.com. "Even there's nothing illegal about it they still cowardly managed to confiscate our servers and property. They are even accusing us of false charges, which conclude there are illegal copies of movies on our servers. That's why we'll fight for our rights against injustice to the bitter end!"
Meanwhile, the investigation of ShareReactor, a much larger and more popular site that was taken down in 2004, is still ongoing.
Source:
Slyck