Dutch court rules against mp3 music directory site

-- The Dutch court of appeal has overturned a 2004 ruling legitimizing zoekmp3.nl, a web site offering unauthorized links to copyrighted music run by Techno Design.

The website was taken down on Monday after the ruling on Friday which said that failure to comply with the injunction would lead to fines of 10,000 euros (about US$13,000) a day or 1, 000 euros (about US$1,300) per infringing file.
Techno Design will also have to pay damages, with the amount to be determined at a later stage.

A warning to users on zoekmp3.nl not to infringe copyright did not excuse Techno Design from liability. "Such a warning ignores the reality that the lion's share of visitors are looking for unauthorized MP3 files," the court said. --