Rechtbank Amsterdam [District Court Amsterdam], Civil law, Kim Holland Productions v. 123Video, ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2010:BP6880

This case deals with the liability of the operator of video hosting platform 123video.nl, which stored, converted and categorized videos uploaded by its users. The videos in question were of pornographic nature and were uploaded by users without authorization of the copyright-owner. The District Court of Amsterdam held that the operator communicated the uploaded videos to the public and therefore infringed on Kim Holland Production’s copyrights. The Court came to this conclusion because of the operator’s active, mainly automated, involvement in the uploaded content. The operator, for instance, had created a separate category for ‘xxx’ videos, and moved all videos of pornographic nature to this category. Uploaded videos were converted to Flash-video-format, and displayed within the framework of 123video.nl. Moreover, the intermediary generated income through its video hosting platform. The hosting safe harbor of Article 6:196c(4) Dutch Civil Code did not protect the operator from liability.