‘Torrent’ Becomes A Dirty Word As Site Admin Fined $29,000 - Polidicks

Source: [url]http://torrentfreak.com/torrent-becomes-a-dirty-word-as-site-admin-fined-29000-110602/[/url] [release]A French Court of Appeal has just upheld the sentencing of an administrator of two BitTorrent-related sites. Despite no evidence being presented that money was made from the sites through advertising as claimed – or even that any infringements had occurred – the admin now faces a $29,000 payout. Bizarrely, the Court decided that having the word ‘torrent’ in his sites’ URLs showed that he knew about infringements. Following a complaint by the French rightsholder group SACEM, in June 2008 police arrested Blackistef, the administrator of two BitTorrent related sites; Torrentnews.net, a links forum and Torrent-public-center.com, a meta-search engine. “I spent a day like a thief, locked in their cells filled with shit and even showered on the walls,” said Blackistef at the time. “A hole in the ground for a toilet (which you can not flush) and a single concrete bench.” “There was an indescribable smell; the guys wrote their name on the walls with shit mixed with the remains of prison food. Even the SPCA [Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals] cages are cleaner and more humane!” he continued. A year later in June 2009, Blackistef lost his case and was ordered by a court to pay SACEM 17,000 euros ($24,500) in damages plus costs. In addition Blackistef was given a four month suspended jail sentence. He immediately appealed the decision. The Court of Appeal heard the case last month and upheld the decision of the original court, handing down the jail sentence plus damages and costs totalling some 20,000 euros ($29,000). The Court rejected Blackistef’s defense that as a service provider or intermediary he should not be held responsible for material posted by users provided he complied with takedown requests. Instead the court took into account their belief that Blackistef had “knowledge of wrongful acts.” Blackistef has since listed a number of important points from the trial, notably that claims from SACEM that he was making money from advertising on the site were incorrect. The banner ads complained about by SACEM were actually member signatures and the site had no advertising income at all. But perhaps more worrying are the revelations from court papers just obtained by French news outlet Numerama. “The decision gives the impression of having been guided more by the desire to punish a state of mind, rather than by the strict application of the law or a rigorous analysis of the allegations,” editor Guillaume Champeau explains. The papers include a statement from the Court which declares that “..the names of these sites [when they include the word 'torrent'] encourage illegal activity. Torrent sites are accessed by users of the BitTorrent protocol which has a main, if not unique purpose, of enabling downloading of copyright protected works.” In a nutshell, having the word “torrent” in a domain name can be reason enough to presume bad intentions. In respect of meta-search engine Torrent-public-center.com, the Court said that since it searched other sites such as Mininova, The Pirate Bay and isoHunt, this search engine was one dedicated to “unlawful downloading”. Furthermore, Champeau notes that the Court was unable to establish from the evidence provided by SACEM that any unlawful downloads had occurred as a result of the sites’ existence. Instead the Court decided to be rather more general in stating that Blackistef “created Internet sites contributing to the underground economy” and his actions “contributed to the destabilization of the economy of artistic creation” and must therefore be punished. “The court clearly sided with SACEM with this ruling, ignoring all the defendant arguments,” Champeau told TorrentFreak. “It either did not fully understand the facts and misinterpreted the law that should have applied at least for the search engine part, or the court did it on purpose because it wanted the man sentenced so that it wouldn’t create a void other sites could enter into.” Nevertheless, Blackistef says he has no money left to continue fighting SACEM and has now accepted his fate. “The term ‘justice is for the rich’ is unfortunately not a myth,” he concludes.[/release]

I hate this planet more and more every day.

TORRENT DOES NOT MEAN PIRACY!!!!

Saying torrent means piracy is like saying bacteria means death or package means bomb.

:sigh: Yaaaaarrrrr....

It is at this time i wish to nuke the whole freaking world. And that's bad :smith:

It's like saying "I own a gun", gets you thrown into jail for attempted murder.

[quote]French Court of Computer Illiteracy[/quote] Fixed that for you.

France has got to be the most retarded 1st world country.

[quote] Torrent sites are accessed by users of the BitTorrent protocol which has a main, if not unique purpose, of enabling downloading of copyright protected works.[/quote] :frog: Step 1: Type torrent into google Step 2: Screenshot Step 3: LODES EMONE

a TORRENT OF BLOOD WILL BE SPILLED

Why are the courts so fucking retarded?

[QUOTE=Janus Vesta;30203469]Why are the courts so fucking retarded?[/QUOTE] They do not understand the medium.

[QUOTE=Funny;30203021]TORRENT DOES NOT MEAN PIRACY!!!![/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Occlusion;30203082]Saying torrent means piracy is like saying bacteria means death or package means bomb.[/QUOTE] This pretty much sums it up

in other news team fortress 2 gets banned in 12 countries because it includes an anagram of the word "torrent"

So if I put "Here is a lovely Torrent:" [img]http://www.universal-soundbank.com/images/rivieres/torrent.jpg[/img] On my website, I will get fined?

I guess Blizzard and Relic had better get ready to pay up for their crimes, they've been distributing updates by way of torrent (which is obviously illegal) for years now.

[QUOTE=djjkps3;30204064]So if I put "Here is a lovely Torrent:" [img]http://www.universal-soundbank.com/images/rivieres/torrent.jpg[/img] On my website, I will get fined?[/QUOTE] wow that is a lovely torrent though fuck also that judge should have his judging license or whatever removed for ignoring [b]obvious direct facts[/b] the only reason such fuckwits get in charge of big decisions is simply because there are so many of them why does human nature seem to consist mostly of being retards

i want my own planet

[QUOTE=Richard Simmons;30203412]France has got to be the most retarded 1st world country.[/QUOTE] I think The States takes that crown, actually.

Don't we already have this sort of thing on facepunch?

A shame that another magnificent search engine useful for finding game patches, Linux Distros and software trials has been put down :(

Those who dont know shit about this kind of stuff Shouldent be fucking allowed to control it

I torrented Overgrowth Alpha build 130, doesn't mean I pirated it does it?

[QUOTE=Risonhighmer;30204490]I think The States takes that crown, actually.[/QUOTE] We still don't have filtering or this 'say torrent and we'll find you" shit.

[QUOTE=FZE;30204383]I guess Blizzard and Relic had better get ready to pay up for their crimes, they've been distributing updates by way of torrent (which is obviously illegal) for years now.[/QUOTE] P2P =/= Torrent

Wow.

That is just retarded...

[QUOTE=Sir Whoopsalot;30204869]P2P =/= Torrent[/QUOTE] Except most P2P sharing is done via Torrent nowadays.

Saying that torrent =/= piracy, whilst strictly speaking is true, generally, i think we all know that nowadays the majority of torrents are for pirated software/music etc.