Yesterday, I spent the entire day in court in Follo Tingrett -representing the member association NUUG, alongside the member -association EFN and the DNS registrar IMC, challenging the seizure of -the DNS name popcorn-time.no. It was interesting to sit in a court of -law for the first time in my life.
+On Wednesday, I spent the entire day in court in Follo Tingrett +representing the member association +NUUG, alongside the member +association EFN and the DNS registrar +IMC, challenging the seizure of the DNS name popcorn-time.no. It +was interesting to sit in a court of law for the first time in my +life. Our team can be seen in the picture above: attorney Ola +Tellesbø, EFN board member Tom Fredrik Blenning, IMC CEO Morten Emil +Eriksen and NUUG board member Petter Reinholdtsen.
-The case at hand is that the Norwegian National Authority for -Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime -decided on their own, to seizure a DNS domain early last year, without -following +
The +case at hand is that the Norwegian National Authority for +Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (aka +Ãkokrim) decided on their own, to seizure a DNS domain early last +year, without following the official policy of the Norwegian DNS authority which require a court decision. The web site in question was a site covering Popcorn -Time. Our team can be seen in the picture above: attorney Ola -Tellesbø, EFN board member Tom Fredrik Blenning, IMC CEO Morten Emil -Eriksen and NUUG board member Petter Reinholdtsen. From the other -side there were two people from Ãkokrim (Elisabeth Harbo-Lervik and -Stian Petersen). On the benches, appearing to be part of the -government group were two people from the Simonsen Vogt Wiik lawyer -office (Hedda Heier and Nicholas Foss Barbantonis), and three others I -am not quite sure who was.
- -I did not quite know what to expect, but the government held on to -their version of the story and we held on to ours, and I hope the -judge is able to make sense of it all. Unfortunately I do not have -high hopes, as it is expensive to be right also in Norway. So far the -case have cost more than NOK 70 000,-. NUUG and EFN have asked for -donations to help fund this case, but only received around NOK 25 -000,- so far. Thus we are quite a bit short. And if we win, I expect -the government to appeal. And if the government appeal, I hope we -have enough funding to run our own appeal.
+Time. And Popcorn Time is the name of a technology with both legal +and illegal applications. Popcorn Time is a client combining +searching a Bittorrent directory available on the Internet with +downloading/distribute content via Bittorrent and playing the +downloaded content on screen. It can be used illegally if it is used +to distribute content against the will of the right holder, but it can +also be used legally to play a lot of content, for example the +millions of movies +available from the +Internet Archive or the collection +available from Vodo. We created +a +video demonstrating legally use of Popcorn Time and played it in +Court. It can of course be downloaded using Bittorrent. + +I did not quite know what to expect from a day in court. The +government held on to their version of the story and we held on to +ours, and I hope the judge is able to make sense of it all. +Unfortunately I do not have high hopes, as the Government have the +upper hand here with more knowledge about the case, better training in +handling criminal law and in general higher standing in the courts +than fairly unknown DNS registrar and member associations. It is +expensive to be right also in Norway. So far the case have cost more +than NOK 70 000,-. To help fund the case, NUUG and EFN have asked for +donations, and managed to collect around NOK 25 000,- so far. Given +the presentation from the Government, I expect the government to +appeal if the case go our way. And if the case do not go our way, I +hope we have enough funding to appeal.
+ +From the other side came two people from Ãkokrim. On the benches, +appearing to be part of the group from the government were two people +from the Simonsen Vogt Wiik lawyer office, and three others I am not +quite sure who was. Ãkokrim had proposed to present two witnesses +from The Motion Picture Association, but this was rejected because +they did not speak Norwegian and it was a bit late to bring in a +translator, but perhaps the two from MPA were present anyway. All +seven appeared to know each other. Good to see they take the case +seriously.
If you, like me, believe the courts should be involved before a DNS -domain is hijacked by the government, or the Popcorn Time technology -have a lot of useful and legal applications, I suggest you -donate to the -NUUG defence fund. Both Bitcoin and bank transfer are -available. If NUUG get more than we need for the legal action, the -rest will be spend promoting free software, open standards and -unix-like operating systems in Norway.
+domain is hijacked by the government, or you believe the Popcorn Time +technology have a lot of useful and legal applications, I suggest you +too donate to +the NUUG defense fund. Both Bitcoin and bank transfer are +available. If NUUG get more than we need for the legal action (very +unlikely), the rest will be spend promoting free software, open +standards and unix-like operating systems in Norway, so no matter what +happen the money will be put to good use.If you want to lean more about the case, I recommend you check out the blog -posts from NUUG covering the case.
+posts from NUUG covering the case. They cover the legal arguments +on both sides.