Tuesday July 24 2007: R4U and SC crew mainly cleared from piracy and copyright infringement.

The court in Rotterdam last Tuesday have mainly cleared the five crew members of the websites Releases4U and ShareConnector, and there host (Mindlab) of copyright infringement, piracy on a large scale and membership of an criminal organization. The DOJ public prosecutor Mrs. A. Drogt had just two weeks ago demanded a fine of 5000 euro and 6 months conditional in jail to all defendants.

Judge Mr. van Klaveren considered the following facts NOT proved:

1. Spreading of copyright protected materials on a large scale, the defendants were cleared of this accusation.
2. Piracy and copyright infringement, the defendants were cleared of this accusation.
3. Membership of a criminal organization, the defendants were cleared of this accusation.

Three of the fife defendants (Releases4U) had admitted they spread a few films within the closed FTP community of the release group DVD-EU, and / or uploaded a few films on the eDonkey2000 network. They where sentenced a fine of 250 euro or 5 days in jail. A lot more to reality, and a wise decision by judge van Klaveren.

Adi and the host (Mindlab) where cleared of all charges, and the judge ordered to return all confiscated computers and equipment immediately. A big disappointment to the prosecutor and BREIN. This test case was just ended a bit different then BREIN had hoped for. Finally BREIN was stopped accusing the p2p community of criminal activities. This leaves 1 to the p2p community and 0 to the entertainment mafia. But don’t think we won yet, although this case was won and showed BREIN was indeed trying to let the DOJ doing the dirty job for them. This case did not really come to an end.

On August 4 2007 the DOJ public prosecutor Mrs. A. Drogt used the media to let the world know she had filed a protection order against Judge van Klaveren’s verdict. Mrs. Drogt thinks she has enough evidence to take the case to a higher level and bring it to high court soon. So the struggle is not over yet, unfortunately i am not convinced Mrs. Drogt has anything of relevance, a new judge will probably come to the same conclusion. We keep you guys informed of the never ending story BREIN against the common (file sharing) people.

To be continued in the near future.

Zocor.

By Adi Moore

Adi MooreFounder
Adi, the anti-censorship crusader and tech-preneur, bootstrapped his first venture in 2001 from his attic into a digital empire. With a heart for open dialogue and transparent technology, he tackles censorship like a pro wrestler. Dive into his deep insights on freedom of speech, internet liberation, and his secret info recipe.

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