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Dutch court says BREIN should get e-book uploaders' names

It's 2016 and Usenet providers are still being used sued

A Netherlands court has ordered two Usenet providers, Eweka and Usenetter, to hand over subscriber details over alleged copyright violations.

The case was launched by anti-piracy group BREIN, which is trying to hunt down whoever uploaded more than 2,000 e-books to Usenet via the providers.

Eweka and Usenetter cancelled the accounts identified by BREIN but wouldn't hand over the account-holders' identity because that would violate strong Dutch privacy laws.

With a court in Haarlem siding with BREIN, the group will now get the information it wants (depending on whether the defendants have the grounds or resources for an appeal).

If the providers don't comply, they face daily fines of up to €1,000 (capped at €100,000).

The judge particularly noted the scale of the infringements, and said without a court order, users would simply change their handles if they thought BREIN was close to catching them.

The order covers the IP addresses the books were uploaded from, as well as names, e-mail addresses, and street address if known.

BREIN has previously gone to court over the legality of The Pirate Bay, in a case which last October reached the European Court of Justice for review.

The judgment (in Dutch) has been posted here. ®

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