NETHERLANDS (Hypebot) – Believing that the best defense is an offense, Usenet site FTD.nu is suing BREIN, the Dutch equivalent of record label trade group the RIAA.
Like other Usenet services, FTD's platform enables its 450,000 members to trade copyrighted files. "“BREIN’s claims are built on legal quicksand,” says FTD lawyer Arnoud Engelfriet. "FTD only facilitates communication between people who quite legally download from Usenet. FTD does not facilitate or carry out any upload and therefore cannot be held liable.”
The lawsuit asks the court to confirm that downloading is not an illegal activity in the Netherlands and clarification on these 5 points:
1. That downloading is legal in the Netherlands, even if the uploader committed copyright infringement when he uploaded the material.
2. That directing users to content on Usenet via FTD is legal, even if the material was put there without permission of the copyright holders
3. That FTD is acting within the law, considering the above.
4. That there is no need for FTD to filter any of the reports its users create which refer to the location of content on the Internet
5. That FTD does not have to remove any of these reports, unless BREIN makes a correct and formal complaint.
