First European Anti-Piracy Disconnection: The Finnish Government
Written by enigmax on May 14, 2008The Internet connection belonging to the Provincial Government of Åland in Finland has been disconnected following action by the anti-piracy outfit CIAPC. This disconnection, ordered by a court, may mark the first time an Internet connection has been severed in Europe for anti-piracy reasons.
The last few months have turned the possibility of disconnecting file-sharers from the Internet into a hot topic. France has been at the forefront of pushing disconnections and many other countries have indicated they would like to implement similar policies, despite objections and concerns that such actions are a disproportionate response to personal file-sharing activities. So far, the general impression is that we are a long way from these things actually happening. Until today.
According to a Piraattiliitto report, the Copyright Information and Anti-piracy Centre (CIAPC) in Finland has used a copyright law which came into force January 1st 2006, to have a file-sharer disconnected from the Internet. However, this drastic action - which is thought to be the first anti-piracy related disconnection in Europe - comes with additional controversy. This wasn’t some kid sharing files from his bedroom on a residential connection, this was a government employee using a government internet connection to share music videos.
In true disproportionate anti-piracy style, this fact didn’t stop CIAPC from getting the government connection severed via the Ahvenanmaan District Court. According to CIAPC the connection, operated by the ISP Ålands Datakommunikation, was being used by the Provincial Government of Åland. It is unclear if this action caused any disruption to legitimate government business but it’s probably safe to say that it didn’t help it in any way.
Åland Executive Niklas Karlman said of the incident: “As an employer, we must ensure that employees do not engage in illegal activities. We are taking steps to raise awareness among our employees. We are aware of this threat to our security.”
According to the report, the Finnish copyright lobby ’sneaked’ the disconnection sanction into copyright law without the legislators hearing the opinions of any independent legal or technical experts. The process has been harshly criticized by Electronic Frontier Finland (EFFI). EFFI vice chairman Ville Oksanen characterizes the legislation process “one of the dirtiest he has ever seen”.
The action also goes directly against the European Parliament who, this April, condemned state plans to authorize the disconnection of suspected file-sharers from the Internet. European Parliament said that disconnecting petty file-sharers would be “conflicting with civil liberties and human rights and with the principles of proportionality, effectiveness and dissuasiveness”.
It seems that even government activity can be disrupted these days in the name of copyright enforcement.
Previously: Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk19)
Next: Understanding Anti-Piracy Enforcement
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Instant classic. :D
Do you think its wierd that antipiracy company can disconnect government from internet? :D
Thats a fucked up language…
WiFi across the border, my Finnish friends, WiFi…
The wonderful part of this article is the quote of the official. It’s essentially blaming the victim for the actions of the aggressor.
Which, as a finn, I will say is completely typical of Finnish government.
wow..
And i thought RIAA/IFPI and the other mobs were bad..
WHAT IF they were coordinating for the disaster in Burma on that connection?
Thats a real crime, might have caused deaths of people who cant get supplies because of anti pirate assholes..
They dont THINK before they do stuff, never mind the future or consequenses their actions and profit war will bring..
Maybe a 2nd cyclone on its way over same areas as well i read..
Hope CIAPC get what they deserve.
i wonder………
pwned!
Hopefully this will make the Finnish government pay more attention to the next copyright law they pass.
“According to the report, the Finnish copyright lobby ’sneaked’ the disconnection sanction into copyright law without the legislators hearing the opinions of any independent legal or technical experts.”
Lol. I swear, all these governments are sharing policy and are deliberately achieving this sort of corruption across the world. People better start becoming active imo, because this is a uniform response across the world by corrupt bureacrats.
I don’t think that a government should be above the law…however, cutting off the internet preventing work from being done, people from being helped due to the actions of one employee…and a few corrupt buros…isn’t on.
Another case where Finland has to show we are on the forefront of enforcing any idiotic rules proposed internationally. The “best pupil” syndrome is nothing new to us finns…
omg lol i laughed so hard when i read that
what kind of retarded government lets that happen!
That’s just great! LOL Maybe the government will take this shit seriously and realize how ridiculous all this really is. It only serves one interest and even the government is not immune to the greed of the copyright lobby
What makes this even sadder is the fact that Finnish people did lots of work against the law and the government in 2005. However, government and especially Tanja Karpela forced the law. :/
i always thought that finland would fight for their right to be free and share. guess this puts Sweden big step in front of finland. Sweden, or better to say, Swedish people, leaders of the free world! show those sheeps from usa and finland how to fight!
Grrr!! What’s with these all-powerful anti-piracy companies!?!
F*ck that, don’t let them pull this sh*t!
There’s a little twist to the anti-piracy law: Disconnecting the pirate must NOT be harmful to any 3rd party member: parents, brother, roommate, as long as there’s someone else using the internet and it would cause him/her harm, they’re not allowed to do it.
Awesome post…
Pwn’d
http://www.hack5.blogspot.com
As we’d like to say in Dutch:
Wat een enorme dombo’s! De (Finse)overheid is het slachtoffer geworden van haar eigen (belachelijke) praktijken…
Stray Mongrel: Look at the map. Aaland is an island, no wifi there.
Åland is not part of EU, it’s a semisovereign swedish shithole of an island and their doings have nothing to do with the Finnish goverment.
22 May 14, 2008 at 15:08 by Finn
Åland is not part of EU, it’s a semisovereign swedish shithole of an island and their doings have nothing to do with the Finnish goverment.
thats good to know but not comforting considering i live in ireland, which has to be in technological terms and litigation the most backwards shithole patch of grey this rock has seen.
Epic lulz =]
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