Dutch P2P - must what goes up come down?

Dutch website FTD has taken anti-piracy trade association BREIN to court to establish where the law stands on P2P downloading. On FTD, the largest Usenet community in the Netherlands, users can post messages in newsgroups about where to find items, including music and films. FTD argue that although uploading copyright material without permission is illegal in the Netherlands, downloading it is not. They want BREIN to post a statement on their website retracting their assertion that FTD’s activities are criminal.

BREIN are saying the action is a delay tactic mounted in anticipation of BREIN’s proceedings against FTD. BREIN contend that although FTD have removed direct links to illegal content, they are operating in a similar way to Techno Design, which BREIN successfully sued in 2006 on the grounds that the site was predominantly used for, and systematically facilitated, downloading of illegally uploaded content. FTD deny that their site operates in the same way.

Here's some further commentary (which cannot necessarily be considered impartial): TorrentFreak, OSNews.