back to article Dutch court says BREIN should get e-book uploaders' names

A Netherlands court has ordered two Usenet providers, Eweka and Usenetter, to hand over subscriber details over alleged copyright violations. The case was launched by anti-piracy group BREIN, which is trying to hunt down whoever uploaded more than 2,000 e-books to Usenet via the providers. Eweka and Usenetter cancelled the …

  1. Danny 14

    now lets see what records/logs they actually hold. "The order covers the IP addresses the books were uploaded from, as well as names, e-mail addresses, and street address if known." surely you would upload articles to countries that don't care and let replication take care of the rest?

    1. Geronimo!

      Given the quite care-free way they worked, at least in the beginning, I would not be surprised if they actually did so from their home IPs. Apart from that: It is to be seen how they used to pay the bills of these Usenet-Providers. Might very well be, that PayPal will be adressed as next instance to give out the data of these users.

    2. TheVogon

      "users would simply change their handles if they thought BREIN was close to catching them"

      Or maybe they just used an open WiFi access point.

  2. Nick Kew

    Isn't this a non-story?

    Unless the ISPs defy the court order, this would seem a non-story. They're not taking any kind of a stand by refusing to hand over details without a court order.

    Though it could become a story if something interesting happens after handing over the details. For instance, the customer was offering free wifi and can't be held responsible for its users. Or can it? Now the world is worried again over public wifi ....

  3. Ged T
    FAIL

    Hotmail email headers?

    Strange that the order (pdf) doesn't demand that hotmail records for the parties concerned are sequestered...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    BREIN

    BREIN, which is Dutch for "Brain" if you hadn't guessed, isn't really fixing anything. Look at Pirate Bay, that was their crown jewel, the one thing they stood up for. Even took rides back and forth to Sweden to put the pressure on (all paid for by the Dutch taxpayers). And the end result? Well, the Pirate Bay still exists.

    SO what do you do when you can't regulate the bad guys? Simple: then you try to "do what's best" and censor them; you force several ISP's to block the Pirate Bay because "Pirate bay is bad, mkay?". Of course who cares that you're now plain out censoring innocent bystanders. And well: that pesky law which actually allows Dutch citizens to freely download contents is best ignored as well.

    A blockade which has since then been removed as well I might add. I'm connected through one of the ISP's which took it to court (and initially lost) but right now I can once again access the Pirate Bay without any problems at all. Another "victory" for BREIN (and I can only shudder at the thought of how much tax money got wasted over this one).

    BREIN is only here for one thing: their own survival and their own income. It is an organisation which has people on the payroll afterall, which automatically means one thing: revenue is most important to them. Without revenue no options of profit and without profit no company survives.

    It's always the #1 thing puzzling me: BREIN demands financial settlements, but where's that money going?

    1. imanidiot Silver badge

      Re: BREIN

      BREIN claims to be representing artists and claims to pay out to those artists it represents. Similar to Buma/Stemra. Also similar to Buma/Stemra however there seems to be "some discrepency" in how much comes in versus how much is payed out.

      1. Daniel von Asmuth
        Terminator

        Re: BREIN

        Brein are a kind of private lobby group, but they act like they are the police and judge.

  5. This post has been deleted by its author

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They're Pinky and the Brain,

    Yes, Pinky and the Brain,

    One is a genius, the other's insane.

    They're laboratory mice.

    Their genes have been spliced.

    They're dinky.

    They're Pinky and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain!

    1. earl grey
      Happy

      And what are we going to do tonight Brain?

      Same as always...

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