Press Release: Popcorn-time.no – NUUG and EFN appeal decision for judicial review of the case and get the legal owner IMCASREG8 onboard.
Popcorn-time.no was decided seized by The National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (Økokrim) in Norway on the 7th of March 2016. The Authority justified their suspicion on the grounds that the domain was involved in aiding copyright infringement. The associations NUUG and EFN have asked the Norwegian authorities and the courts for a judicial review of the seizure, but the Norwegian authorities did not want it. The district court concluded that NUUG and EFN are not sufficiently affected by the seizure for a judge to consider it. As we appeal the issue we have brought with us the legal owner, the association IMCASREG8 as aid, we are of the opinion that this strengthens our legal position.
IMCASREG8 is an association that is established to enable the registration of .no domains for entities that are not established in Norway. Registrar IMC AS offer this service and has also served as registrar of popcorn-time.no. IMC AS and the company’s accountant were subjected to search warrants in connection with the seizure and are therefore particularly affected.
NUUG and EFN consider the matter of fundamental importantance and tests the limits of free speech. If the seizure is upheld, this opens up for the authoritiesto be able to seize a domain name without any other basis than the suspicion of discussions about alleged illegal actions. Seizures of domain names are very intrusive and constitutes a form of prior restraint which intervenes directly in the Norwegian Constitution §100. (The freedom of expression clause)
The news site popcorn-time.no concerned itself with Popcorn Time, a free software solution that combines lookup directory services / search engines and download with Peer-to-Peer technology BitTorrent with an embedded video player. It can both be used to play legal video material such as. NRK and BBC have posted, and video material posted in violation of the licensee wishes.
“Part of what makes us upset is that the domain of a news site concerining a piece of free software that has both legal and illegal uses has been removed without judicial scrutiny,” says NUUG leader Hans-Petter Fjeld.
“We want the Norwegian DNS addresses to not be removed without the courts involvement, and think it is a strange reason to hide mention of tool that has both legal and illegal uses. It’s perfectly legal to use Popcorn Time to eg. download the NRK recording from the Bergen Line. ”Those who wish to support this attempt to get court judgments by seizure of the DNS domain popcorn-time.no can donate money to NUUG and EFNS “war chest.” One can donate by bank transfer or Bitcoin (for the first time in Norway).