Danish anti-piracy group acting illegally?
For a background see here. Check out the lively discussions on slashdot, which link to articles on The Register and digitalMASS.
What proof has Antipiratgruppen provided? The article's I've read seem to indicate that the only evidence shown to the Danish judge was the IP addresses of the pirates and listings of available files. I.e. the names of the files. Hopefully something more substantial has been provided, like checksums of the actual files. Without checksums of the content of these files, how on earth could these names prove anything?
One could also argue what the existence of such a checksum could accomplish in a court, without proof of where the file was obtained (implying that the accuser would need a copy of that same file he or she say the pirate had at the time). How do you prove you got the file from specific host?
Another issue discussed on slashdot and in the articles concerns the legality of the bureau's actions. digitalMASS quotes the Danish attorney Martin von Haller:
In this case, we're talking about compensation for the damage the Anti Piracy Group claims its members have suffered. It's the courts that decide the amount of compensation to be paid due to copyright infringement, not the victim.
What rights did the collected evidence give the bureau? The Danish judge apparently gave the bureau legal access to the ISPs' customer records of the pirates in question. From this grant, taking the step to send fines of arbitrary amounts is quite large. Shouldn't the evidence instead have been used by the copyright holders - or someone representing them - to prosecute the pirates?
Are the Danish Anti Piracy Group using questionable methods?
