RealNetworks has sued the owner of a website in The Netherlands for displaying a hyperlink to a competing freeware package. As the company seeks compensation for its claimed losses, the 26-year-old man is borrowing money from family to survive.
Real Alternative
The case started in 2010 when RealNetworks demanded that the computers belonging to Hilbrand Edskes and his family be confiscated. A Dutch judge granted this in an ex-parte ruling, based on an alleged violation of copyright law and trademark law. The company claims that Edskes was hosting the infringing software. The move to secretly obtain the order was meant to ensure that evidence wasn’t deleted.
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Edskes has a website, Codecpack.nl, that links to a wide variety of freeware programs. One of these is Real Alternative, a competitor of the mediaplayer RealPlayer from RealNetworks. RealNetworks alleges that the software violates their trademarks and copyright, and it wants to be compensated for all downloads via Codecpack.nl.
However, Edskes wasn’t hosting the software, but just redirected to other sites for the actual download. The complaint turned out to be based on a hyperlink to the software. To date there have been two court sessions, and in December Edskes will have to testify under oath.
There is a heavy pricetag attached to the case. So far Edskes has incurred more than €66,000 in legal fees. He says the costs cut his savings, hindering him from buying his own house. If he loses the case Dutch law requires him to cover all legal fees of RealNetworks. According to documents Webwereld.nl has studied these costs are nearly €75,000.
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RealNetworks claims Edskes failed to remove the link to the software, and the reference in the DNS directories existed after February 12, 2010. However, the hosting provider checked backups and confirmed the removal of the link. The company that confiscated the computers has confirmed the immediate removal of the link. Unclear is the exact date the DNS reference disappeared, since backup cycles take longer. RealNetworks alleges the infringement was ongoing for 43 days and thus Edskes ought to pay €210,000 in fines. Edskes claims DNS caching is to blame for the delay.
It is remarkable that RealNetworks is going after Edskes. The software is available at many locations. The documents seen by Webwereld also show that the company is unaware of who the real creator of Real Alternative is. When asked a series of questions on the matter the company, through their Dutch legal firm, refused to comment. Questions will be answered only when the court has ruled, "no matter what the outcome is."
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Comments
Update said: Internet thugs Realnetworks lose case against Hilbrand EdskesIn what looks like a typical case of trying to silence somebody American company Realnetworks with the aid of the Dutch public prosecutor the Dutch police and the Dutch courts has managed to bully webmaster Hilbrand Edskes into running up over 66000 euro in legal costs losing all his spare time and putting off his hopes of one day buying a houseWhat Realnetworks did not manage to do is win its lawsuit against Hilbrand Edskes The latter won last Wednesday Edskes had a link to software Real Alternative competing with Realnetworks product Real Player on his website which the company alleged was illegal The court thoroughly dismissed all of Realnetworks claimsRealnetworks won an ex-parte case against Edskes in August An ex-parte case is one where the defendant is not allowed to defend himself so it wasnt strange that Realnetworks managed to win that one Remember how Louis Vuitton tried to keep the world in the dark about its involvement in the Darfur genocide They used the same legal crowbarRealnetworks you may or may not remember used to produce a piece of software called Real Player with which you could play videos and music Almost nobody uses it because it is not nearly as good as VLC or Quicktime One wonders if perhaps suing small fry is Realnetworks latest business modelThat a supposedly democratic country like the Netherlands lets anyone with deep pockets abuse the court system to bully others is a disgrace and judges who see no problem with ex parte cases ought to be deeply ashamed of themselvesThe court only awarded Edskes 48000 euro in damages because both parties had agreed to this amount beforehand according to the verdict Dutch
Update said: The story continuesSince its clear that the lawyers of RealNetworks - PNAM Claassen and EF Vaal of the Dutch law firm AKD Prinsen Van Wijmen Breda - have lied in court they nor RealNetworks want to respond to any questions of the pressBut there is moreWhat RealNetworks liarslawyers Peter Claassen and Elitte Vaal of AKD Prinsen Van Wijmen Breda did on behalf of RealNetworks was initiate a so called ex-parte proceeding In this filthy legal proceeding the defendant is not informed at all before the court gives a ruling This means Claassen and Vaal could tell the judge all lies and one sided points of view they could think of without anyone arguing against it since there was no hearingThe next move after obtaining the ex-parte proceeding was to force the removal of the hyperlink and confiscate computers This is done by a court accredited party The plaintiff RealNetworks nor its lawyers like Peter Claassen and Elitte Vaal of AKD are allowed any access to the evidence or to get any information about the evidence unless the defendant gives permission or in case of a new court order But the accredited forensic IT digital factfinding and litigation support party named DigiJuris BV Nijkerk gave information about the evidence to RealNetworks lawyer Peter Claassen of AKD without permissionA recorded phone conversation published on Webwereldnl between B Borst from DigiJuris BV Nijkerk and RealNetworks lawyer PNAM Claassen of AKD clearly shows that the plaintiff got information about the content of the confiscated computersIn their dialogue Bas Borst DigiJuris and Peter Claassen RealNetworks decide that the confiscated computers may only be returned under the condition that the Real Alternative software is deleted while knowing the application is just an installed version for personal use as can be found on most freeware download sites You can even hear Bas Borst say that what was found on the computers has nothing to do with programming distributing or anything like thatKnowing that giving the plaintiff any information was strictly prohibited it is unclear why bailiff EA Dragstra of Pranger Agin Gerechtsdeurwaarders en Bewijsbeslagspecialisten allowed Bas Borst to do so The fact remains that in this way RealNetworks has illegally received information from DigiJuris BV Nijkerk Bas Borst in the presence of bailiff Egbert Dragstra who was responsible for Bas BorstRealNetworks lawyer Peter Claassen of AKD started the case in 2008 That makes it striking to see that he still doesnt even know what RealPlayer or Real Alternative is In the mentioned telephone conversation Bas Borst from DigiJuris BV Nijkerk has to explain to the lawyer of RealNetworks that you can play music with it
Buffering said: Buffering
Guest said: This shows that the only people left at RealNetworks are a collection of stupid idiots and adds to the justification for people like myself to never ever use or recommend their worthless garbage productsWhen I see their junk on a pc the first thing I do is delete it as it has no value at all since significantly superior products are available everywhereThese filthy bastards at RealNetworks should get sued the hell out for malicious prosecution This is nothing but an intimidation tacticRealNetworks deserves to fold up like a card table
InflamedFlamingo said: RealNetworks is an old shameful relic of days gone by thinking they can still be relevant by suing one poor soul whos as aware as the rest of us that RealPlayer has been for a long time and will continue to be Forever Insignificant
Guest said: Some lawyer should punish RealNetworks for being twats