Dutch antipiracy organization takes aim at Pirate Bay

The Pirate Bay is the target of yet another legal case -- the Dutch antipiracy organization BREIN wants to close the file-sharing site in the Netherlands, and wants to see its founders appear in the Amsterdam district court on July 21, it said Tuesday.

Whether Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Gottfrid Warg will show up remains to be seen. BREIN chose an unusual method to summon them and used Facebook and Twitter to convey the information to three men.

"You can find the defendants on Facebook and Twitter. Internet works for enforcers as well as infringers. Now they know about the court case in the Netherlands," said BREIN director Tim Kuik in a statement.

However, Neij told Swedish news agency Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå that he uses Facebook and Twitter, but hadn't seen anything about the case.

Cases involving the file-sharing service are now ongoing in an increasing number of countries.

Movie and record companies filed documents last week in a Norwegian district court seeking a temporary injunction to force ISP Telenor to block the site. A similar case is waiting to be heard in the Danish high court, and has already led to the site being blocked by some operators.

In April, Neij, Sunde and Warg were found guilty of being accessories to crimes against copyright law in a Swedish district court. They were sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay 30 million Swedish kronor (US$3.8 million) in damages.

Currently, the Swedish court of appeals is looking into changes of bias directed at the judge who handled the case in the district court. The three judges who will decide the matter started deliberating Wednesday.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.