With authorities shutting down torrent sites due to copyright infringement, two digital rights group have filed lawsuits against Norwegian authorities after seizing a Popcorn-Time related domain.
It can be noted that BitTorrent sites and software have long been targeted by government initiatives looking to enforce copyright infringement laws. PirateBay and Kickass torrents have been subjected to multiple law suits, which shut down the websites for days at a time; however, it seems like these sites and software providers finally gained the support they needed to go against these government initiatives. Just this week, several digital rights groups have filed a lawsuit against Norwegian authorities over the recent seizing of Popcorn Time's site.
Popcorn Time is a free software BitTorrent client which allows video streaming akin to Netflix. In March, Norwegian authorities seized Popcorn Time's domain - popcorn-time.no, as reported by Torrent Freak. According to authorities, the site was seized because it redirected traffic to other sites where BitTorrent software can be downloaded.
"The Norwegian domain popcorn-time.no helps electronic publication by linking to other domains where the required software can be downloaded," read the police statement.
Popcorn-time.no, however, does not host the software itself. Instead, the site is home to news articles and links to different sites where a user can download the application. Since Popcorn-time.no itself does not contain downloadable links for the application, the legality of the action done by Norwegian authorities is currently being questioned.
Electronic Frontier Norway, or EFN, and Norwegian Unix User Group, or NUUG, has since filed a lawsuit against the Norwegian authorities surrounding the seizure of Popcorn Time's related domain. According to EFN's managing director Tom Fredrik, the action done by the government task force limits free speech.
"We feel that this is an important case that addresses the limits of free speech. If this procedure is found to be legal, domain name seizures will make it possible for the police to shut down a forum based on mere suspicion that a site discusses potential illegal actions," quipped by Fredrik in an interview with Torrent Freak.
The two digital groups argue that authorities went too far in taking down the domain. They have filed the lawsuit in order to clarify if the content of Popcorn Time's site is enough grounds for their domain to be seized.
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