De Brauw has successfully defended anti-piracy foundation BREIN, eliciting a landmark ruling by the District Court of The Hague on 24 October 2012 which marks a new step in BREIN's battle against internet piracy. For the first time a Dutch court ruled that an internet hosting provider is liable for damages resulting from activities on the website it is hosting. Liability was based on the fact that the host was unwilling to immediately cease its hosting services to an illegal (torrent) website. These damages may entail the revenues that copyright holders have missed because their music, movies, games and books have been downloaded and uploaded illegally via torrent website Sumotorrent.com for four years.
Stichting BREIN is a content protection foundation representing the majority of Dutch right holders for film, music, digital books, software and other multimedia works.
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