In 2005, the anti-piracy group Antipiratgruppen (APG) in Denmark files a courtsuit against a person that was sharing his 13.000 songs via P2P.
The case has been through the entire Danish courtsystem and last month, the Supreme Court came with a ruling that will change future claims from rightsholders, in this case IFPI that were filing this suit in cooperation with APG.
Although the person was sentenced guilty, the original claim of $83.400 was reduced to a mere $1.900, majorly due to the defendant’s own confessions. He had confessed to sharing the files. However, APG had scraped the index files and tracked the IP address. APG has previously used this method to track perpetrators, but the Supreme Court now has ruled that this is not evidence that the defendant actually had the files on his computer.
Per Overbeck, the defendant’s lawyer said after the ruling: “ The ruling demonstrates that it pays to be critical of APG’s claims.”
On the other side, IFPI lawyer Johan Schlüter said that the Supreme Court ruling will make it harder and more cost-expensive to gather proof in these cases and will in the future make APG seize people’s computers, when filing court issues, sending more work to Police, IT experts, and possibly locksmiths too. Johan Schlüter also commented that the industry is in somewhat of a cultural battle where illegal copying is not seen as a serious offense, since it’s digitally copied and not a physical theft of items.
In 2005, the anti-piracy group Antipiratgruppen (APG) in Denmark files a courtsuit against a person that was sharing his 13.000 songs via P2P.
