Two Dutch users of the bitTorrent platform were convicted of illegally distributing content without owning copyright. The defendants do not seem to have lost it, and are using crowdfunding sites to manage to pay their fines.
The two users were reported by BREIN, a Dutch copyright protection organization. Both users managed to reach an out-of-court settlement with BREIN, after agreeing to stop uploading new torrents, posting discouraging messages on their profiles, Kickass Torrents and Pirate Bay, and pay a small fine for their actions.
So DisasterZany, user of Kickass Torrents, agreed to pay $1.750, while Kickass Torrents and Pirate Bay user ipod020 agreed to pay $2120.
According to a post posted by another user on Kickass Torrents, both pirates created crowdfunding campaigns on the Dutch Dream or Donate website.
Up to now, the DisasterZany has managed to raise 363 euros from 36 donations, while the ipod020 has 688 from 58 donations.
Both users are said to be students without income.
The Dutch Tweaker website says BREIN representatives are unhappy with the two pirates, mainly because they do not prevent other uploaders from knowing they can easily cover the fines with crowdfunding campaigns.
