AfterDawn: News

First hearings in Finland's largest P2P case

The first hearings in Finland's largest P2P piracy case were made today in district court of Lahti where two users distributed copyrighted movies, music, games and software via BitTorrent network, sharing their torrent links via site called Finreactor (back then, Finland's largest BitTorrent and ed2k site). The two men were among those who got singled out by media corporations as being "major contributors" when the Finreactor site was busted by Finnish police back in 2004.

Media corporations and software companies are seeking total damages worth 3.5 million euros (appx. $4.5 million) from the two users now in court. The two users now facing court are just the tip of the iceberg in Finreactor case. In other district courts across Finland, appx. 60 former users or operators of the site will face similar court cases brought against them. All of the people facing legal challenges against them, were, according to Finnish police, either administrators of the Finreactor site or people identified as the "first sources" of illegally distributed material.

Written by: Petteri Pyyny @ 11 Aug 2006 2:54

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• 20 comments

• rav009

  File sharing at its knees once more... :(

  11.8.2006 03:03 #1

• halfhere

  wont ever end though, bring 1 site down and 2 more pop up.

  11.8.2006 05:26 #2

• Bladework

  his right until they make theyre products at a really cheap price people wont stop.!!

  11.8.2006 06:32 #3

• webwise

  Right Bladework, well sort of. I think many people would not mind a reasonable (not necessarily really cheap) price. But most of us object to profiteering. Which is a different thing from making a profit.

  11.8.2006 07:33 #4

• ZippyDSM

  Dont forget if they intertwin Torrents and links to torrents or other links with DOWNLAODING thigns are goign to get worse.
  
  If you can get in truble for shareng a link just think about it....uhg

  11.8.2006 10:12 #5

• DigiKaos

  even if the games are cheap.........honestly people wouldnt pay if they could get it for free!! I think that the Internet Piracy would be brought down to minimum, only if all ISPs aroud the world start limiting totall bandwidth for both upload and download!

  11.8.2006 11:07 #6

• tcharp

  My ISP, and many others, already imposes download and upload limits. I certainly don't want them to start telling me HOW I can use what I'm paying for.

  11.8.2006 13:44 #7

• scorpNZ

  No douubt limewire and morpheus will be next and just my luck i bought into them a year ago D'oh,ahh well i better get some serious download'n of the same songs i have on album and download a few sample songs of albums i'm think'n of purchasing.........
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  like all that are on a particular album mwaaaaaaaa
  
  
  

  11.8.2006 13:47 #8

• Retro_rc

  don't they ever give up
  
  even hollywood did

  11.8.2006 15:18 #9

• xhardc0re

  @DigiKaos: Quote:all ISPs aroud the world start limiting total bandwidth for both upload and download!Gives me another reason to stay home & watch all those movies i've traded with my friends locally :P
  
  As you can guess, pir*cy will never end. Either Hollywood & the RIAA can adapt (i.e. remove ALL DRM FOREVER) & sell it's music affordably online....or die.
  
  I'm guessing they'll just the or die choice.
  Which i will be happy to help them along with!!

  11.8.2006 15:38 #10

• atkonen

  Anyone know the situation if you have genuine VHS copy of a film,
  A) can you have a downloaded DVD of the same film legally?
  B) is a home-made backup onto DVD (effort! quality! coding!) legal.
  I've dozens of good old films, and would like to retire my bulky old VCRs.

  11.8.2006 18:16 #11

• ZippyDSM

  atkonen
  In the US I bleive any downoading is wrong.
  that said doing it yourself is not,altho they might bitch whine and complain if you do it all youerself as means of backing it up for your use then theres nothign wrong with it.

  11.8.2006 18:22 #12

• xhardc0re

  @atkonen:
  If you want to know the law & protect yourself go to http://www.eff.org because every law about copying will be found there. Atleast for the U.S., i'm not sure of outside the U.S. For people who have some time or $$$ to donate, consider helping the EFF. They are a good organization for everyone.
  

  Download great AMV/gaming videos at http://www.youtube.com
  
  SlimPS2 v12US, TaiyoYuden DVD-R, SwapMagic_v3.6 & BreakerPro 1.1 (No mod)
  Writer: HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GWA-4080N 0G03 Software: DVDDecrypt*r, lastest Nero Ultra 7 & Alcohol 120%

  11.8.2006 23:00 #13

• Chris1000

  Have to agree with webwise. I would not mind paying about $20-30 dollars a game or program (excepting photo processing programs like Photoshop or OS's).
  
  Right now, the $60-70 is WAAAAAAY to high for me to even THINK of buying. That is about 25% of what I make a week, way too much for a game or program that is not essential.
  
  Computer parts have gone down, but software just keeps on going up and up and up. Something is wrong here, and I seriously believe it is due to profiteering.

  12.8.2006 19:48 #14

• jtkorn

  you i think they make reasons just to take peoples money the rich get richer and we need to fight back

  12.8.2006 19:52 #15

• drakshug

  atkonen
  Here in Lithuania it is legal to make one backup of any cd or dvd you have bought (including MS progs).
  The telecom even operates a file sharer though I don't use it.
  I use bit torrent and the powers that be will never beat sharers. Remember when they moaned about copying cassettes? Did it stop people?
  The only thing that gets me is the ones who download to sell on. Half my films are so rare they aren't on DVD so where am I going to get em?

  12.8.2006 23:33 #16

• ZippyDSM

  drakshug
  its your problem that you cant find it or import it,you have to spend your moeny on the thigns they have and nothing else,so they think 0-o
  
  I know there are alot of little anime shows I like yet are not ofered in the US at elast not with subing,I care not for thier fourkids tripe,alhto there are acouple shows where the dubing was amusieng,but on a whole its bad.
  
  Lets not forget the whole over priceing thing to 70-140$ per season,OMFG mabye for a new show thats desprate for cash but anythign thats already made its profit should be sold for a much more reasonable price....of corse this whole profitering shceme has leaked over to games altho I am not sure if it comes from the over priced programs or the over priced films/music ><.
  
  
  

  13.8.2006 01:20 #17

• xhardc0re

  A quote from someone @EFF.org about current lawsuits & future crisis:
  "How many prisons will they build for file sharers? How many prisons will they build for murderers, rapists, arsonists, drug dealers, white collar CEO criminals & the rest?
  Think about that.

  13.8.2006 15:34 #18

• drakshug

  Too right zippy. The software prices are getting to be a joke, especially microsoft. What is worse is that when you buy a microsoft OS, it isn't actually yours. You are just leasing it. No wonder people download pirate copies. I myself mainly use linux which is free and I have the right to make as many copies as I want.
  Basically if I lend my dvd film to a mate to watch it is the same. He isn't going to buy it. So why not make a copy of it for him and gift it to him?
  Personally I think they should put a levy on blank media to cover royalties. A couple of cents would be enough.

  16.8.2006 00:28 #19

• gad123

  Hey, what a great site and this is my first post! :)
  
  I just don't know what to thnik about this, it's not fair to rip companies off by copying, selling, sharing and not buying direct from them but by the same token some media is far to expensive to justify purchasing!
  
  There must be a better way, like a levy, free low quality music or movies to share in the hope you buy high quality CD's or DVD's or a structured filesharing system that you pay a charge to use.
  
  Anyway no one wants to be branded a crim so for now, if you are woried, just stop it! :s

  16.8.2006 01:10 #20