Pirate Site Owners Found Guilty by Court; Torrent Sites Still Being Hounded

Owners of a textbook pirate site were found guilty by a Danish court. Although not a torrent site in itself, the website was still sued due to copyright issues.

Almost all types of media contents can be seen on pirate sites like The Pirate Bay, Kickass Torrents, and ExtraTorrent.cc. However, academic and other educational books are less likely to appear online as compared to movies, games, and music files.

Seeing that, a trio composed of a 26, 31, and 71-years old decided to operate a site to resolve such concern allegedly. Denmark-based website LendStudy has provided students with access to hundred of textbooks.

The site owners operate by scanning original copy of the books and selling it online. The selling price of the books in the said website is far lower than that of the original textbooks price, at around $45.

"It is expensive for students to acquire new knowledge. Lendstudy wanted to spread knowledge in the form of books that give students more opportunities for new knowledge," Torrent Freak quoted one of the alleged site owners' defense.

However, it did not take too long for the copyright holder to take notice of the said operation. Upon presentation of evidence, it was showcased by the plaintiff, RightsAlliance, that LendStudy made a revenue of around $3,500 by means of sophisticated I.T equipment.

Seeing that, the idea of enriching the minds of students failed to persuade the court. Hence, the online piracy case prospered, while their excuse was ignored.

Meanwhile, the crackdown on torrent sites and alternative pirate sites continue. Just a few months ago, European Court of Justice stated in its ruling that streaming copyrighted material for free on multimedia players such as Kodi is illegal.

Seeing the current situation in some places concerning textbooks availability and pricing, one cannot help but empathize on the so-called vision of the textbook pirate site owners. However, Martin Lindø Westeraaard from University Press of Southern Denmark, also justified that if such action will continue "publishers have less incentive to produce textbooks and "it will be detrimental both for publishers and for the student."