Court of The Hague: FTD did not violate copyright, but stimulated uploading of protected files

Usenet-community FTD is not guilty of infringing copyright as no works are published via the site. However, the services that FTD rendered did stimulate uploading of files. And that is unlawful, ruled the court of The Hague yesterday.

The ruling, made by the court of appeal, again puts Eyeworks, that started a case against FTD because it refered to files used to download Eyeworks’ movie ‘Komt een vrouw bij de dokter’, in the right. In the earlier verdict, the judge ruled that FTD, by referring to a download location, was in fact guilty of copyright infringement. FTD director Ronald Sievers indicates to be happy with this milder verdict: “We are relieved that the Court has repealed the previous verdict.”

The judge furthermore stated that downloading from an evidently illegal source is still to be treated as part of the home copy exception and that, therefore, downloaders are not at fault legally.

The previous ruling of the court, that indicating where a file can be downloaded is in itself a criminal act, was quite controversial. Internet lawyers feared that the verdict would have far reaching implications that might contradict the goal of the verdict.

The court for now only regarded this specific instance. The question whether referring to uploaded files is always an unlawful act, is now being considered by another judge in a case between anti-piracy organisation Brein and FTD.