Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Dutch court rejects watchdog request to track down Internet pirates

An AFP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

A Dutch court rejected a request by an Internet piracy watchdog group to force five Internet service providers to hand over personal data on people downloading large amounts of music and films.

The five Internet providers in question -- UPC (UGC), Wanadoo (France Telecom) Tiscali, KPN and Essent Kabelcom -- had refused to release the data requested by the
Brein Foundation, saying this would be a breach of privacy.

The Dutch court ruled that Brein had in fact illegally obtained personal data about the alleged Internet pirates through a US research firm, information that is better protected in the Netherlands than in the United States.

The court in the central city of Utrecht refused to grant the foundation's request for further information from the service providers.

Brein says that music and film piracy on the Internet bleeds the music, film and software industry in the Netherlands of 176 million euros (214 million dollars) a year.


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