Amsterdam court orders porn site to remove unlicenced films

Porn site xHamster has been ordered to remove all footage featuring Dutch people who have not given their permission for their images to be used, by appeal court judges in Amsterdam.

The site, owned by Cyprus-based Hammy Media, is one of the biggest providers of online pornography in the world, with tens of millions of users a month.

The case was brought by a Dutch campaign group Offlimits which had received reports that some films had been uploaded to the site out of revenge, while others had been stolen via hacking.

The appeal court, which upheld a lower court decision, said the company must remove all unlicenced footage within three days or face a fine of €10,000 per illegal video. The fines go up the longer the company waits, to a maximum of €500,000.

“This ruling underlines the fact that this sort of footage should not be on the internet unless explicit permission has been given,” said Offlimits director Robbert Hoving. “Porn sites should take more responsibility for ensuring everything is in order, for everyone who is pictured.”