The court upheld the data associations claim in Popcorn Time case
Data Associations NUUG and EFN won in the Borgarting Court of Appeals in the case against The Police’s Economic Unit (ØkoKrim) seizure of the domain Popcorn Time. The case will be sent back to the district court.
– The fight for freedom on the Internet continues with unremitting commitment, says EFN and NUUG leader, Hans-Petter Fjeld, in a press release.
Norwegian authorities stressed that the decision only means that the case be sent back to the district court because of deficiencies in the reasoning’s in the ruling.
– The Court of Appeal’s ruling implies that Follo District Court must once again consider the question of, among other things; the seizure of the domain popcorn-time.no is to be maintained. The criminal case is still under investigation, says Public Prosecutor Elisabeth Harbo-Lervik.
Streaming service
In March, Økokrim took possession of the Popcorn Time domain, a streaming service that gives users access to movies and TV shows. Økokrim stated that the domain made the material available without the consent of the copyright owners, that this infringes the copyright and that the domain is part of a global problem in continuous and rapid development.
Norwegian Unix User Group (NUUG) and Electronic Frontier Norway (EFN), sent a petition for judicial review of the seizure. They consider the case as fundamentally important and that the seizure tests the limits of freedom of expression. If the seizure is maintained, this opens for the police to be able to seize a domain name only on suspicion, NUUG said in an email to NTB at that time.
District court
NUUG and EFN were not successful when the case was up in Frogn District Court. The Court of Appeal criticizes the district court for inadequate handling of the case.
The Organizations
NUUG’s purpose is to stimulate increased use of free software, open standards and Unix-like systems, while EFN is an electronic civil society organization dealing with, among other things, legal rights in the IT community. NUUG has around 300 members, while the EFN has around 535 members.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today