Re:a criminal suit vs a civil suit (Score 2, Informative)

I'm one of the lawyers for FTD. The case we started is purely civil law: we ask the court to confirm that downloading for personal use is legal, and that FTD is doing nothing wrong by letting people identify materials available on Usenet that others may want to download. The criminal aspect relates to a statement by BREIN that FTD is engaging in "criminal activities" by offering their platform. We consider this a form of defamation. But acting against defamation is also a civil action.