The long-running legal battle between News-Service Europe (NSE) and anti-piracy group BREIN has quietly come to an end.
NSE was once one of the largest Usenet providers, but its legal troubles started in 2009, when BREIN took legal action on behalf of the movie and music industries.
In an early verdict in 2011, the Court of Amsterdam concluded that NSE willingly facilitated online piracy through its services. As a result, the company was ordered to remove all pirated content and filter future posts for possible copyright infringements.
According to the Usenet provider, this filtering requirement would’ve been too costly to implement, so it shut down its service while it appealed the case.
Supreme Court Win for NSE
After several more years of litigation, the Amsterdam appeals court ruled that NSE wasn’t liable for users’ pirating activities after all, but NSE was required to offer a responsive and effective notice and takedown procedure, possibly with additional measures.
Unhappy with the outcome, BREIN decided to take the matter to the Dutch Supreme Court. While NSE was no longer a threat, the case could prove crucial for many other Usenet providers.
In 2023, the Supreme Court confirmed that the Usenet provider shouldn’t be held liable for pirating users. The fact that NSE had a decent takedown procedure and no apparent knowledge of infringement weighed in its favor.
The Court also confirmed that NSE didn’t curate any content, nor did it specifically promote copyright infringement.
NSE Seeks Millions in Damages
The Supreme Court ordered BREIN to pay the legal costs. For NSE, however, the victory was bittersweet, as the company had already thrown in the towel well over a decade earlier.
In a final effort to recoup some of its claimed losses, NSE sued BREIN for damages last December. Exact details were not revealed, but the claim could’ve easily reached millions of euros.
While NSE shut down voluntarily, the company says that it saw no other option at the time due to BREIN’s legal pressure. As a result, the entire NSE team lost their jobs.
In its initial response, BREIN looked forward to the new legal battle with confidence. BREIN director Bastiaan van Ramshorst said that NSE willingly decided to shut down its service in 2011, instead of engaging in court-mandated negotiations.
NSE and BREIN Settle
This latest lawsuit could’ve easily added a few more years to the legal battle. However, it won’t come to that, as NSE and BREIN have decided to settle their differences once and for all.
Last Friday, the parties issued the same brief press release. This effectively confirms the end of the 16-year legal battle without adding any further detail.
“Last week the parties reached a settlement, which allowed them to avoid further escalating litigation costs. Both sides are pleased with the outcome and have agreed not to disclose the details of the arrangement,” NSE and BREIN announced.
This type of tight-lipped announcement suggests that the parties reached a compromise. Since NSE is a defunct entity with no operational future, financial compensation seems the only logical incentive for them to drop the multi-million euro claim.
NSE had little to lose at this point, but, for BREIN, the settlement means that it no longer has to face a claim for ‘millions’ in damages. The details of this agreement will remain secret, which underscores that it remains a sensitive issue after all these years.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
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