Everyone following the anti-piracy org BREIN and it's lawsuits in NL knows that this judge is corrupt, but it cannot really be proven. BREIN always uses the same judge, they always make it impossible for the defendant to be present at the hearings (as I understand it, but I don't know much about it, they use some loophole to make it impossible for the defendant to defend itself at the moment of the verdict). And he always finds the defendant guilty in these cases, no matter how insane (like the 'links case' Falkvinge discussed, were even showing the name of a movie in the forum was considered 'illegal linking').
This should get more press, but not enough people care in NL I think as this is only dredged up as 'wow how can this be' in tech forums while it's usually only a footnote in other press. And I don't believe that's a conspiracy, but rather that, no-one cares...
BREIN has shopped around all over the country, using different courts every time. Most of the time they lost. But suddenly they stopped, and brought all their cases to the same court in The Hague where they started winning cases most people considered absurd.
I have no clue. Maybe it's only the cases he presides which make the press as BREIN wins there, but I'm fairly positive I read somewhere they always 'use' this judge. Maybe someone else knows more about it here?
Even though I'm dutch and live in NL I have no idea how our judicial system works. However, I was under the impression that a random judge is appointed to a case.
If my impression is correct and this judge actually does the majority of Brein's cases wouldn't that alone be worth an investigation?
If it is like in Germany, there's the concept of the "legal judge": There must be a regular set of rules which judge covers which cases. That can vary locally, and over time, but it must apply to all cases filed at the same court at a time.
These rules exist to ensure that judges can't take over cases they wish to distort in some way (eg. because they don't like the plaintiff or defendant, they have a strict opinion on the subject matter, ...).
Unfortunately, the rules used in some places here allow(ed) the plaintiff to skew things in their favor (if they want a certain judge to handle the case). If assignment depends on the date of filing, they wait for the right day. If it's semi-random (but guessable to some very high degree based on prior day's assignments), they check the records to find the right timing... These lobbying groups consists mostly of lawyers - if there's a loop hole, they'll find it.
It's possible that BREIN found a legal way to skew assignments in their favor, too.
Yes, I do think it definitely warrants investigation as definitely all high profile BREIN cases I heard of (and that's more than these 2) were with this judge. If it would be random then someone has a bad generator :) And i'm sure, somewhere, someone is getting Rolexes and seats in councils for this.
Edit: Ah, Hensen already has a seat in the Benelux council for intellectual properties.
Thank you very much. I'm glad that you have proven that people the world over can be ignorant, lazy, and uncaring - not just Americans. If an American had written what you wrote(about having no idea how our judicial system works), his comment would be paraded about as proof of the idiocy of Americans.
Well, in the Swedish case where TPB had issues with the judge, the judge was chosen essentially because they knew what this newfangled filesharing thing was, which was more than could be said for just any random judge.
That makes a lot of sense; guess that's it. But I would say it's duty of the gov to make sure every expertise significantly large has at least 2 judges capable. Otherwise it's too easy to get into this kind of weirdness.
This judge isn't so much corrupt as politically and ideologically motivated. This became most clear in his judgement in which he described the Pirate Party as a radical party because they favor copyright reform and transparent government.
He actually believes in draconian copyright protection, and considers himself to have the right to take measures the government fails to take, and to use ISP's as his on private anti-piracy police force.
This should get more press, but not enough people care in NL I think as this is only dredged up as 'wow how can this be' in tech forums while it's usually only a footnote in other press. And I don't believe that's a conspiracy, but rather that, no-one cares...