Copyright Law

Filesoup Admin Busted for Copyright Infringement

By soulxtc

Even though quit hosting BitTorrent trackers back in 2005, and since then only providing links to other sites to access copyrighted material.

Established back in 2003, Filesoup was one of the BitTorrent community’s first tracker sites. It quit hosting torrent trackers back in 2005, and since then has operated like more like a TVLinks, serving as repository for forum members to exchange links for copyrighted material hosted elsewhere on the Internet.

However, much as how the former TVLinks admin found out the hard way that even linking to copyrighted material can get you in trouble with the UK’s Copyright Designs and Patent Act, Filesoup’s admin was arrested and his PC hardware confiscated.

According to him, the warrant for the raid on his home reads as follows:

For issue of warrant under:

Section 109 Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988

Identify, so far as possible, the articles or persons to be sought and search for:

Evidence in relation to the illegal distribution or illegal file-sharing of copyrighted films however held, whether electronically or otherwise. Also any evidence in relation to payments received relating to the illegal distribution or illegal file-sharing of copyrighted films held whether electronically or otherwise.

Specify person or persons: AUTHORITY is hereby given for any constable (accompanied by):

Neil Gardner, an officer of the Federation Against Copyright Theft (F.A.C.T.)

The last part, the fact that officers were accompanied by a rep from anti-piracy org FACT, is noteworthy because it turns out that all of the equipment seized in the raid was apparently handed over to Gardner, FACT’s Senior Investigator, to be released or examined at his discretion.

Filesoup’s admin also noted that when interrogated by police they were clueless about how the site actually operates.

“I was then interviewed by two police officers and it was recorded on tape, they asked loads of questions about all sorts of things to do with Filesoup, I had to correct and explain things to them several times, in very simple terms, a lot of the misconceptions or misunderstandings they had about the way BitTorrent works, how servers and hosts operate, how the internet works, what a domain name was, what a URL was, to name but a few things! The tape machine beeped and kept stopping part way through the interview, it appeared that they knew it was a “bit faulty” at times, but fiddled with it and carried on regardless, eventually, the interview was finished,” he writes.

He’s been ordered to return to police custody on October 2nd so it will be a few months before we see how the whole affair unfolds.

I think FACT is trying to make a case against Filesoup in TVLinks fashion, that it is profiting via user donations as it indexes copyrighted infringing material.

?Sites such as TV Links contribute to and profit from copyright infringement by identifying, posting, organizing, and indexing links to infringing content found on the internet that users can then view on demand by visiting these illegal sites,? a spokesman for Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) said after TVLink’s admin was busted.

I’m sure it intends do the same with Filesoup, but can anyone honestly think of a bigger waste of law enforcement’s time and effort, let alone FACT’s? The site hangs so low on the file-sharing tree that it’s barely worth mentioning. I mean look at how many more TVLinks-style sites still exist, let alone Newsgroup indexing or BitTorrent tracker sites.

What a waste of govt resources.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

[Hat Tip]

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on August 05, 2009 (boomark / email).