Copyright Law

The Pirate Bay Recieves Court Summons Via FaceBook and Twitter

By DrewWilson

BREIN may have pretty much lost all of their credibility a long time ago in the eyes of many, but that doesn’t seem to stop them from trying to issue a court summons in the Netherlands. BREIN is seeking to shut down the operations being conducted in that country.

Sources have already said that The Pirate Bay founders have lost their appeal in their court conviction. Judges suggested that the original judge was not biased in spite of his affiliations with pro-copyright organizations.

While the spectacle in Sweden is ongoing, another legal development is emerging. BREIN has issued a court summons via FaceBook and Twitter. The reason they delivered their court summons in this fashion is supposedly because they couldn’t find them. BREIN is demanding that The Pirate Bay be shut down in the Netherlands.

?The internet works both for those who respect copyrights and those who violate them. Now they know that the hearing will take place on July 21st in Amsterdam,? said BREIN CEO Tim Kuik.

The Pirate Bay has previously been the object of legal proceedings in several other countries, including Italy and Norway.

?The Swedish pirate movement is making trouble for the rest of the world and foreign copyright holders are suffering,? said Henrik Pontén, a lawyer for Sweden?s Anti-Piracy Agency (Antipiratbyrån).

Of course, this is opposed to the copyright movement making trouble for civil society around the world ever since it filed a lawsuit against Napster nearly 10 years ago, shutting down the service. At least in this quote, BREIN is honest when they say they are strictly for foreign interests.

Of course, The Pirate Bay operates in several countries, so this is unlikely to shut down the website even if they won this odd court case. Some have questioned whether this method is even a proper court summons in the first place.

It’s unclear exactly how a court summons would work. The admins for The Pirate Bay confirmed that they had Facebook and Twitter accounts, but denied seeing the court summons in the first place.

Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on June 25, 2009 (boomark / email).