Meet the Honest Thief

By Jon Newton - p2pnet.net

"Call it file sharing or shoplifting, here in Holland we call it good business."

That's what Pieter Plass, head of a new Dutch file sharing service company called The Honest Thief says.

"We Dutch are a free thinking people and we've never been the type to legislate morality," Plass is quoted as saying in a europmedia.net report, continuing, "With our file sharing service and our new software, we hope The Honest Thief will become to file sharing what the Swiss are to banking."

In March, 2002, a Dutch appeals court ruled that if there's any copyright infringement associated with Kazaa, it's down to app users and not Kazaa itself.

And last month a US judge decided Kazaa owner Sharman Networks - which operates out of Australia - could be sued in California, although its headquarters are in Vanuatu, a Pacific island.

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), which has been going blue trying to deal with Kazaa and other apps of its ilk, is under the impression that it's won a major battle. But p2p operators not based in the US are likely to wonder what an American ruling has to do with them.

In the meanwhile, Plass says he's prepared to take a "calculated risk" and test the issue, according to a February 21 Wall Street Journal story slugged Music Industry Faces New Threats On Web.

"In addition to the construction-management company he heads, he owns a nine-employee software firm, PGR BV, that has developed tools related to building and real estate," says the WSJ. "Its programmers created an application that works much like current popular services like Kazaa, enabling users to exchange files between individual computers rather than downloading them from centralized servers."

With his new venture, Plass plans to license the software - not yet finalized - to clients who'll then create Netherlands-based file-sharing operations and, "His goal is to grab a chance to 'make some honest money'," adds the report.

wow, now that's a bold move, basically taunting these dying giants! it's like someone producing a vehicle suited for role as the getaway car. i'm all for anything that helps put the current industry to rest, but this is just silly.

That's kick ass. Where others make mistakes, others can follow up and make P2P stronger.

Note he doesn't want to make his own client, but instead devlop the network and license it. Its important for p2p networks to form as fast as the RIAA can shut them down through . This is likely to be a propritary system similar to kazaa. I expect its part of a plan to fill the hole in the market when kazaa edventually gets shut down. I hope they have really powerful servers then

Holland is an acceptable place to run a p2p company. Europe may be turning into "America 2", but its nowhere near as pro-corporate or pro-copyright as america yet.

I hope this new network will be a good chance for someone to test out the latest p2p technologies.

i'd like to thank you jon for posting such usful information on this site, keep up the good work.

Pieter Plass is certainly a courageous entrepreneur but i doubt if he has the infrastructure to build a fast and reliable p2p network. I hope some big company like Philips (also based in the Netherlands) invests some of its money and resources to his endeavors.

well, not all america is bad, it's just the crooks that run it, even though 90% of americans that have the internet use p2p software, they don't tell people about it, no one likes stuff that they have to pay for, The RIAA, MPAA, PETA, Democratic Farmer Labor party (DFL/ Liberals) give the United States of America, not America, but the United States of America a bad name. If we eliminated them we would be much better off, and as most people know al gore DID NOT invent the internet, so we still can't and won't give him credit.

If we keep making more and more p2p clients, and networks, we will spread the RIAA thin, then we can finnish them off, and kill the illegal monoply once and for all. Of course we need to vote in people that ARE NOT being endorsed by the RIAA, That means any p2p user Can't vote for a Democrat because they are sponsored by the RIAA.

Anyway Way to Go Jon Newton for bring us some very good articles, just as jimweirick said...

About filesharing. I am poor, so why should I be forced to buy an album? I am also a multi-talented record producer/video producer/musician myself. So how will I ever own my own company or "Make it big" if I waste all my money on content creation software and buying albums? Besides, the record companies bitch about the record sales because that's where THEY get most of the money, not the artists themselves. What about tours and live shows, T-shirt sales. We cant steal or experience a live show without going to it. That's where the real money lies anyhow. I'm even a member of the RIAA, AES, etc. What the hell. CD's are a waste of my money!!!! DSL isn't, I give away my music and the videos I produce for FREE on AcidPlanet.com (Artist search "J. Zaring") mp3.com and Broadjam.com. All I really want is for people to hear my music, play live shows, and continue to run my small business. Who are the real crooks here, $20 for F#$@ing CD! Come on now.....eMail....jszaring@hotmail.com

About filesharing. I am poor, so why should I be forced to buy an album? I am also a multi-talented record producer/video producer/musician myself. So how will I ever own my own company or "Make it big" if I waste all my money on content creation software and buying albums? Besides, the record companies bitch about the record sales because that's where THEY get most of the money, not the artists themselves. What about tours and live shows, T-shirt sales. We cant steal or experience a live show without going to it. That's where the real money lies anyhow. I'm even a member of the RIAA, AES, etc. What the hell. CD's are a waste of my money!!!! DSL isn't, I give away my music and the videos I produce for FREE on AcidPlanet.com (Artist search "J. Zaring") mp3.com and Broadjam.com. All I really want is for people to hear my music, play live shows, and continue to run my small business. Who are the real crooks here, $20 for F#$@ing CD! Come on now.....eMail....jszaring@hotmail.com

Modern mass entertainment is poor quality, overbudgeted junk. Its full of an endless stream of sex, violence, swearing and more sex. It sells. Its what people want. Most people dont want to puzzle out the plots, they want to see a big-breased heroine killing a giant CGI monster, or watch people get killed in various painful but intresting ways. This does not attract the most ethical of viewers, so its not that surprising they dont pay for it unless they have to.

"This does not attract the most ethical of viewers, so its not that surprising they dont pay for it unless they have to." I don't really know if it was intended for me, so take it "as is" Just for info's sake, even though I can afford cable TV and the like, I choose to not subscribe. I buy movie's that I like, I hate seeing murder, violence, sexism and racism sitting in front of me. Knowing that and wholly agreeing with "goldenpi" why would I want to pay a monthly fee, because truthfully that is all I would see if I had cable. I am a broadband internet subscriber, that lets me pretty much govern what I see and hear. I mainly have a high speed connection only so I can upload my creations. I like comedy, but not vulgar. I dont consider myself any certain label and don't really care if anyone labels me. It doesn't bother me at all. My reasong behind the comment I posted a day ago was that were all so worried about how the "art" is handled we cant even enjoy it anymore. On top of that our world is constantly at war, and all these big-wig record execs can think about is how "illegal downloads" are affecting their wallets. Were in a sad state, not that alll of you people don't realize this. Your precious media promotes only bad things(war, conspiracy, sexism, racism, etc.) somehow we thrive on this, and than bitch about the conflict going on right now. War=War folks. Pain promotes pain. Peace............or whatever you call it.

I'm soooo sick of the money grubbing record companies & execs., (and some artists) that I can't stand it!!!
Those greedy s.o.b.'s are acting like they invented music.
Why can't they see that inhibiting downloads is not helping them! It's hurting them!
I go out of my way, not to buy their sh#%, now that they're making such a big stink about someone paying for a pizzle of one little download.
Those of us who feel this way need to stick together & make those bastages see that they're hurting themselves as much as everyone involved!

did u see the grammy's,, I have never seen such lousy live entertainment before....not one live performer sounded any good..(and I have a dig feed).. American Idol puts on a better show with better singing..No wonder no one is buying that crap it is horible,,I'm sick of being treated like a sheep by these corporations...I only wish we could get a real monopolistic lawsuit against them instead of that stupid pay the lawyers cd pricing lawsuit..$20 give me a break It should be much higher,, With compound interest and such it should be at least $30 per cd bought before 95 and $15 after, you should be able to bring your cd's to a riaa(big 5) store (aka the mall lol) and get your cash!!! What a joke American business courts are so corrupt it is not even funny..The fines on business's are a joke,,,A company can screw over the consumer and pay a fine that amounts to less than a 1% of the profits it obtained during that period...give me a break..Steal a billion, slap on the wrist steal a wallet go to jail 1year+.... Yeah life's fair.. That's it im copyrighting the word MUSIC.... and im not going to let the riaa use it..moohaaahaaa

Like I always say, move to Germany. Whatever an American court rules isn't exactly binding there, is it?

Damn straight.

thus creating a completely new difference of opinion/potential conflict.... we should be addressing it, not trying to find loopholes... IMHO

btw...whats a dig feed

A lot of very interesting info presented on this site. All done by one man? Amazing...

Amen, Bill is amazing and has much knowledge on the deceit of the RIAA.
I conversed with him for over 2 hours on the subject, i'll never buy a new cd that will support the record companies, nor do i listen to any clear channel stations in Los Angeles.
Thanks

DIGital FEED fyi, probably a satellite system or decent quality digital cable