Dutch anti-piracy group takes down illegal P2P site

Amsterdam, NL. (Top40 Charts/ IFPI)-This week Dutch anti-piracy foundation BREIN took down another illegal P2P site: dsb-tracker.org. This Dutch language Bittorrent site offered torrent links to popular films, music, games and software to 8,300 registered users. BREIN executes structural civil law enforcement against illegal P2P sites and over the past 15 months 131 sites that facilitated around 1.6 million users were taken down.

The site operator had been put on notice by BREIN but continued its illegal activities. BREIN then demanded the site's hosting provider, Leaseweb, take down dsb-tracker.org, a move which led to the operator taking it down himself. This operator was also owner of the illegal site dsb-scene.org which was also put on notice by BREIN.

Tim Kuik, managing director of BREIN, says: "Although this action concerns smaller sites we did consider requesting a name disclosure because the operator continued his activities after our notice."

Illegal P2P sites make structural and systematic use of the unauthorised availability of content files with music, film, games and software on the internet. BREIN demands that site operators to give themselves up and sign an undertaking to cease and desist from their illegal activities under forfeiture of a penalty. If the operators cannot be reached or fail to respond, BREIN requires the service provider to take the site down and disclose the name and address of the owner or operator. BREIN holds the owners and operators of P2P sites liable for the infringements that take place through their services.

Last year the Amsterdam District Court ruled in favour of BREIN's claim that an Internet Service Provider had to disclose the identity details of large uploaders that sourced an illegal P2P-site. ISP's are held to disclose identity details if the injured party has a justifiable interest to obtain them, the infringement is plausible and the identification of the responsible person is beyond reasonable doubt. In addition to its cease and desist undertaking under forfeiture of a penalty, BREIN also demands compensation for the damage caused by the illegal activities. That can run up from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of euros.