Usenet portal FTD acts unlawfully by publication of movies, says judge

The court of The Hague has, for the second time in a row, ruled that Usenet portal unlawfully publishes the Dutch movie ‘Komt een vrouw bij de dokter’. According to the judge, FTD plays a key role in retrieving and downloading the movie.

Usenet is a service that is almost as old as the Internet. Originally, it was a discussion forum. In the last few years, however, it has mainly developed as a platform for the distribution of copyrighted content such as movies and games.

Users place ‘spots’ on FTD, which contain information about such content. A spot, for example, can state where a movie can be downloaded, what the quality or filetype is and whether it contains subtitles. FTD moderates these contributions and ensures that only relevant spots remain online.

Eyeworks, who produced the movie, went to court earlier to force FTD to remove those links to the movie. FTD opposed this verdict and claimed not to be responsible for the unauthorised publications as it has no role in in the downloading and uploading of the files. The judge ruled differently. According to the court, FTD is “the maker, owner and administrator of the key with which the individual user gets access to copyrighted material.”

The judge referred to a recent verdict by a British court in which Newsbin, also a Usenet portal, was also deemed to be playing a key role in the distribution of protected content, even though the files were not hosted by Newsbin but rather elsewhere on Usenet.

The entire verdict can be read on the site of Boek9.