A what?

What is a torrent you may ask? A Torrent is basically a bookmark of files kept all over the internet and on users’ computers across the internet. Torrent sites collect these bookmarks and make them available so that other users can load the bookmark and automatically pull bits and bobs of the same file from all across the internet – with the resulting file being a perfect copy of the original file.

So what?

RiSA issued so-called take-down notices on a number of internet service providers in SA where a number of Torrent sites were hosted. A take-down notice is an American invention, now entrenched in the South African Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, whereby ISP’s can escape liability from third parties (copyright owners for example) if it responded on a take-down notice (in which a copyright owner will claim its copyright) whilst the facts surrounding the copyright are investigated and proved.

According the RiSA the South African Torrent sites infringed on its members’ copyright and are piracy-centric sites. After the take-down notices were served on the ISP’s (via the ISP Association_, the sites were closed down – to the great chagrin of the local online community.

To the rescue

A local lawyer jumped in on the behalf of the Torrent sites (pro bono) and made some very interesting legal points about the take-down notices and RiSA’s actions:

1. The sites do not actually host any copyrighted material – this is hosted by the user on the other side of the “bookmark” and downloaded by the person using the “bookmark”.

2. RiSA does not have the necessary locus standi (legal standing) to issue the take-down notices, since in terms of the South African Copyright Act, only the copyright owners themselves would be able to institute legal proceedings for the infringements.

3. In terms of the SA’n constitution everyone has a right to be heard in court (access to the courts) and by merely taking down the sites, the ISP’s might have acted unconstitutionally by not allowing the Torrent sites to state their side of the story.

We take your point

The lawyer also warned of civil claims against the ISP’s and RiSA for the infringements. All-in-all, these points made the ISP’s and RiSA sit up and listen, whom have now offered to sit down with the Torrent sites and negotiate. RiSA has also indicated that whilst the issues are being ironed out, that they will not send out any more take-down notices.

Over time there have been a lot of noise in the “Zuma-case” commentary, from some arrogant uneducated peeps, to some other inciting cartoonists who caused quite an uproar, to “the-guy-sitting-next-to-me-on-the-plane-on-Friday”.

The history to the case is quite long and involved, with numerous applications all over the world…

During all of this time, a large number of commentators where very, nay extremely, negative and sometimes even downright dismissive about the impartiality and reliability of the courts’ integrity. Some these comments included that if the court doesn’t find in Zuma’s favour, there will be mass picketing (YCL’s Mashilo) or that there will be people willing to kill for Zuma (ANCYL’s Malema).

In essence, a number of Zuma’s staunch supporters went out from the premise that the judiciary cannot be trusted to give the “correct” judgment.

Finally, on Friday past, Nicholson J, handed down his judgment in Zuma’s application in having the NPA’s prosecution scrapped because of policital interference in the advancement of the prosecution. Zuma (and his supporters) were vindicated and the prosecution of Zuma was striked.

What br!ghtshark fails to understand is how these supporters of Zuma, whom were all so disbelieving of the indepedence of the judiciary, can now so easily and triumphantly claim this judgment as a “victory” to be celebrated. If the judiciary was as unreliable as Zuma’s supporters made it out to be, this same logic should be applied to the final “victorius” judgment handed down by Nicholson J and should this judgment be viewed with much circumspect, but that is probably the illogical game of politicians and their antics.

—> A fully searchable e-library for law journals, etc (http://tinyurl.com/2c2tnh)

—> A fully searchable database of all judgments from the Constitutional Court (http://tinyurl.com/2dok3n)

And the most impressive: a RSS feed for the court roll and judgments!

—> Judgments = http://www.vivid.co.za/concourtrss/judgementfeed
—> Court Roll = http://www.vivid.co.za/concourtrss/courtrollfeed

Well done I say!