14 DAY TRIAL // The Czech Pirate Party strongly believes that linking to pirated content is not illegal under the country's current laws and has created a website to prove it.
The party's decision to create an online index of links that point to infringing content came after the Czech Anti-Piracy Union sued a 16-year-old boy for doing the same.
The organization claims €5 million in damages in the lawsuit and called the high school student from Liberec the greatest pirate in the country.
According to Ars Technica, Czech Pirate Party Vice President Mikuláš Ferjencik called this characterization absurd and called on the Anti-Piracy Union to "stop bullying the under-aged."
The party has openly declared war against the union and is ready to prove in court that its interpretation of the law is correct.
As a result, it launched Tipnafilm.cz, a site ten times larger than the one previously operated by the Czech youngster and whose slogan is "linking is not a crime."
That is a big risk to take considering the possible consequences of losing the legal battle. However, the advantages of winning it or even trying to do it are also big.
The party is likely to win a lot of political capital from Czech Internet users and not only, because news of its stance has already made it into the country's mainstream media.
On the other hand, if proven right, the party's effort is likely to attract more aggressive lobbying from pro-copyright groups in order to introduce legislation that explicitly makes linking a crime.
As the clash between freedom of information campaigners and pro-copyright organizations intensifies the same question will probably raised in other countries as well. For example, the Spanish courts have recently ruled that linking to infringing content is not an offense. This has set a legal precedent for similar cases.
The Czech Pirate Party's decision is probably intended to create controversy and attract attention toward itself, because the party could have also proven its point by putting its resources behind the younster and helping him win his own case.