Usenet community FTD goes black

Usenet community FTD will not appeal against Stichting Brein and will cease its activities on March 1. The organization announced this on Tuesday morning. Last week, the judge ruled that FTD encourages copyright infringement.

The organization behind FTD sees no possibilities to appeal, says ICT lawyer Arnoud Engelfriet, who advised the Usenet community in the case against Stichting Brein. “FTD will be shut down,” said Engelfriet. “We see no possibilities for an appeal. That takes one and a half to two years and costs a lot of money.” During that time, FTD must stop offering spots. Moreover, Engelfriet has little confidence that the court on appeal will rule otherwise.

As a result, this is the last month that FTD can be used. “FTD will remain available until March 1, after which the doors will be closed for good,” the organization said. There will be a memorial page on FTD.nu, says Engelfriet, and ‘just maybe’ there will be a forum on the organization’s site.

Last Wednesday, FTD lost a lawsuit against Stichting Brein. According to the judge, the usenet community’s program of the same name encourages the uploading of copyrighted material without permission. Among other things, the kudo system, which rewards users for ‘spotting’ Usenet postings, would contribute to this, the judge ruled. FTD started a lawsuit against Stichting Brein in May 2009. The usenet community wanted Brein to stop ‘blackening’ FTD and to rectify statements by Brein director Tim Kuik. He accused FTD of facilitating copyright infringement.

In turn, Brein demanded a ban on FTD. The program, which can “spot” Usenet uploads, is said to infringe copyrights, although FTD itself does not host files. The organization already removed the nzb button two years ago. According to Brein, this adjustment was only ‘cosmetic in nature’, partly because it was still possible to add the nzb button through an add-on.

In November, FTD lost an appeal in a lawsuit filed by Eyeworks. Eyeworks had sued FTD for offering references to the Eyeworks movie Comes a Woman to the Doctor. Although FTD itself did not infringe any copyrights, the judge found that the Usenet community was still unlawfully engaged. References to the film had to be removed. FTD also lost that case in first instance.