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BREIN to ramp up legal action against individual file-sharers
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 15 March 2016
Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN has confirmed it plans to ramp up its legal action against suspected file-sharers, going after people who upload music, movies and TV shows without licence, and targeting both the most prolific uploaders and those who repeatedly make brand new content available via the file-sharing networks.
We’ve been here before, of course, with various content industry groups going after individuals who file-share in the early days of rampant online piracy, but with limited success in terms of both the damages won (or, at least, paid) and the bid to create a deterrent to put others off the idea of sharing unlicensed content online.
BREIN reckons it can still have an impact on the file-sharing community with its new round of legal action, which follows the recent deal done with a prolific uploader who pledged to stop sharing files after the anti-piracy group secured an injunction from the Dutch courts that would have fined the offender €2000 a day if he carried on uploading copyright infringing material.
The file-sharers have, in the main, got better at hiding their online activity over the years, but BREIN seemingly has a new method to identify which IP addresses are involved, and adds that it’s not entirely impossible to identify file-sharers using a VPN, a common tool for masking piracy. Though the group will still only get IP addresses, and will then need internet service providers to reveal the actual identity of those accessing the internet from those points, which may well require court orders.
Either way, BREIN’s new piracy-monitoring method has now been approved by the Dutch Personal Data Authority, and the organisation seems set to ramp up this part of its anti-infringement work. Torrentfreak quotes BREIN Director Tim Kuik as saying: “The trial run is behind us and we will now start collecting IP addresses and evidence. I advise notorious uploaders to think twice, after all, forewarned is forearmed”.
