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canopic jug [soylentnews.org] writes:

Over at TorrentFreak there is an article about aggressive prosecution for even talking about the streaming service Popcorn Time.

A man from Denmark has been handed a six-month conditional prison sentence for spreading information about Popcorn Time. In what is being described as a first for Europe, the man was convicted after telling people how to download, install and use the movie streaming service. He was also ordered to forfeit $83,300 in ad revenue and complete 120 hours community service.

[...] Importantly, PopcornTime.dk hosted no software, preferring to link to other sites where the application could be downloaded instead. That didn’t prevent an aggressive prosecution though and now, two-and-half years later, the verdict’s in and it’s bound to raise more than a few eyebrows.

Neither this specific case nor questions about the service in general have played out yet. Control over playback and distribution and the grey area in between have been hotly contested for decades, and will continue to be for the forseeable future. The first big, international case being the one against Jon Lech Johansen [theregister.co.uk] in Norway. Recently, with the integration of digital restrictions into the very standards making up the web [techdirt.com], things will become more difficult in the area of distribution and playback.

Source : Man Handed Conditional Prison Sentence for Spreading Popcorn Time Information [torrentfreak.com]

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