- Real Player put down a request for an Ex Parte case (court case without a hearing).
- The Ex Parte case assumed that the webmaster was hosting the infringing software.
- When this hosting claim did not held in court, Real Player still decided to push the case for linking.
His view is along the lines of:
- lawyers have a responsibility too. If these Ex Parte cases have no merit, this should have consequences for the lawyer guiding his client into an Ex Parte case.
- Ex Parte cases are expensive and lawyers earn a lot, owing to the 150k+ legal costs (really high for Dutch standards). Frivolous Ex Parte cases could border on abuse of the legal system for monetary gain.
For me, a cursory glance on the internet _does_ show servers with the name of the suspect being referred to as mirrors for the Real Alternative software. Also shortly after the newest releases, suggesting a relation between the suspect and the unknown creator(s) of the software Real Alternative.
Real Alternative uses DLL's and marks (like logo's and icons) owned by Real Player, so it is hard to make a case for fair play.
There is likely a lot more to this case than a simple hyperlink, even if it is lawyers being lawyers. Linking to infringing software has no relation to Dutch Copyright law (since it is not republishing), and isn't even grounds for an Ex Parte.