James Delahunty
26 Oct 2012 11:09
BREIN wins important court decision.
The Dutch anti-piracy firm has convinced a court in The Hague that XS Networks - formerly the web host of SumoTorrent - should be liable for damages due to copyright infringement aided by the BitTorrent tracker. XS Networks has already ceased operations, but it was once the web host for SumoTorrent.
The court found that XS Networks is guilty of facilitating copyright infringement for refusing to shut down a website which it knew was illegal. SumoTorrent is still in operation from a host in Ukraine, so it's unlikely to be affected by the decision.
"We take down more than 600 sites a year - these are sites which give access to illegal content," Tim Kuik, the head of Brein, told the BBC News website.
"If the sites are unco-operative, we go to the hosting provider that has to take them down according to a Dutch law, which states that if a site [falls into the category of] 'evidently illegal sites', the hosting provider has to take it offline. What is new now is that the court has ruled that a hosting provider that doesn't act promptly becomes liable for damages."
Kuik believes this decision needs to serve as an example for other countries within the European Union.