Dutch movie and music pirates will soon risk a higher chance to get caught for copyright infringement. Dutch anti-piracy organization 'Stichting Brein' will no longer only focus on the initial uploader, it will also start to target frequent seeders. The organization has developed special software to find such users.
Brein is currently preparing implementation of the software and hopes to put it into operation later this year, according to Tim Kuik, director of Brein in an interview with the Dutch website Tweakers.net. The software should make it easier to target more internet pirates.
“Going after the initial uploaders was successful, but there is a larger group of users on file sharing platforms that serve as a source. Because they make frequent use [of those platforms] and remain active as seeder, we believe they take a substantial part in maintaining the system,” according to Kuik.
Kuik didn't want to provide Tweakers.net with any details on how the system works, which means it's unclear what kind of users are considered 'frequent seeders' by the software of the anti-piracy organization. Kuik only mentions that the software monitors for specific behavior in a certain time frame and that it collects IP addresses of the users who are considered as frequent seeder by the system.
Using the IP addresses, Brein hopes to retrieve personal data from the user's internet provider. It's possible Brein has to force internet providers with a court order but it's also very well possible that providers will voluntarily cooperate. That's because the outcome of previous lawsuits in the Netherlands has learned providers that they will be forced to provide customer details when copyright infringement is very likely and when the details can't be obtained in any other way.
Kuik explains that Brein will ask internet providers to ask customers that are suspected of copyright infringement to contact Brein themselves. This way the suspects can prevent a lawsuit of which the legal costs will have to be paid by themselves.
