Engaged in the fight against Internet piracy Dutch organization BREIN forced the Usenet network to extradite a user suspected of piracy.

In the last few years BREIN has developed a vigorous activity in the fight against Internet piracy. The organization actively hunts users of file-sharing services, torrent trackers, specialized groups on Facebook, YouTube-pirates, and also for users of Usenet.

As reported by the publication of the Torrent Freak, BREIN asked one of the Usenet providers, Eweka, to disclose the identity of the suspected user piracy. Someone under the pseudonym Badfan69 was accused of downloading to the network of 9,538 works that violate copyrights. Eweka provided the anti-piracy organization with the home address of the suspect, and BREIN officers charged him.

The 44-year-old accused agreed to pay a fine of 4.8 thousand. Euro. If a man continues to upload pirated content to the network, he will have to pay 2,000. Euro, until the total amount reaches 50 thousand. Euro.

This victory is very important for BREIN, but not in terms of money. When the organization first requested Eweka user data, the provider refused. At the beginning of this year, BREIN appealed to the court, which eventually took her side. As the court ruled, in a case of copyright infringement of this kind, Usenet is required to provide the requested data.

According to the law of the Netherlands, in case of suspicion of copyright infringement, if the affected party has a legitimate interest, providers can, at their discretion, provide personal information of their customers. As a rule, such cases do not presuppose interference by the court.

The provider must decide whether to transmit data or not and in case of failure to provide good reasons.

Currently, cases like the above are very rare. However, having received user data from Usenet, BREIN can force other providers to issue their clients without resorting to court.

Usenet (user network) is a part of the Internet computer network used to communicate and publish files. Usenet consists of newsgroups into which users can send messages. Messages are stored on servers that exchange them with each other.