Czech Pirate Party launches movie download linksite with motto, "Linking is not a crime"

The Czech Pirate Party is incensed that a Czech high school student has been sued for €5M for running a website with links to allegedly infringing downloads. The Party has expressed its outrage by launching Tipnafilm.cz, a site full of movie download links whose motto is "linking is not a crime."

“By bullying young people, the Czech Anti-Piracy Union, with the help of the state, is attempting in vain to salvage the old business model which has ceased to function in the age of the Internet,” say the Czech Pirate Party...
“Yes, we unequivocally declare open war on the Anti-Piracy Union. Bullying ordinary people from their side must stop. The Czech Anti-Piracy Union claimed a huge success when it caught the ‘greatest pirate in the country’. But that is absurd, in fact he was just a small fish. For this student we have built and launched a similar site. The difference is that there are ten times more links on our site,” Ferjencik told TorrentFreak this morning. We denounce that the police should be run by the propaganda of the Anti-Piracy Union and that it should harass anybody who puts a video on his/her web page or Facebook page,” said chairman of the Czech Pirates Ivan Bartoš.
“We challenge the Anti-Piracy Union to stop bullying the under-aged and to aim its preposterous claims at the Pirate Party.”

Pirate Party Launches Movie Download Sites As “Declaration of War”

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Copyfight • czech republic • law • linking • pirate party • web theory

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kairos

There could be a useful rhetorical play to pick up here; have digital liberties activists in the US ever tried framing it to appeal to the ThinkOfTheChildren memeplex? To be sure, it goes against the grain – would be actively internally inconsistent, really - but hey, this is politics, not ethics. The EFF should look into finding a high-powered law firm willing to consider a class action civil suit against the MAFIAA for harassment, abusive legal tactics pursuant to same, emotional damage, whatever a civil version of extortion would be…and choose kids as the plaintiffs. Even if there’s not a huge expectation of winning, with the right media team the political value could be enormous.

*waits for an attorney to appear and explain why it’s utterly impossible*
pKp

That’s a pretty ballsy move. Props to them. I fully expect a follow-up post in the coming weeks asking for donation towards their defense fund…