IFPI to Sue Swedish ISP for Facilitating Copyright Infringement
Written by Ernesto on May 02, 2008The last year has seen the IFPI shift its focus from the individual filesharer, to their ISPs. After Denmark, Norway and Ireland, the anti-piracy lobbyists have now announced that they will go after a Swedish ISP, claiming that the company facilitates copyright infringement.
Ideally, the IFPI wants every ISP to act as the Internet police, by restricting their customers access to websites they claim are facilitating copyright infringement.
So far, the IFPI has had little success with their lobby, that’s probably why they decided to put legal pressure on the ISPs. “We believe that ISPs have a special part to play in this and must help us. The discussions we’ve tried to have with the ISPs haven’t led anywhere,” IFPI’s Managing Director in Sweden, Lars Gustafsson, said in response to their recent announcement.
The IFPI claims to have studied several ISPs practices, but according to Lars Gustaffson they intend to focus on one particular company which they claim facilitates filesharing on the Internet. One of the services they hope to stop is their nemesis, The Pirate Bay.
Gustafsson was advised by his legal team not to disclose the name of the ISP yet, but many people think the ISP Bahnhof will be the most likely target, since they are recommended by the pirate community because of their high stance on integrity.
“The ISPs don’t believe they have any responsibility to help when it comes to hindering filesharing,” says Lars Gustafsson. IFPI already sent out letters to several service providers, urging them to start monitoring their customers and filtering websites.
Most ISPs refuse to cooperate with the IFPI though. Last month, Telia Sonera, a large Swedish ISP responded to the IFPI’s request by stating that such actions are illegal under EU law. Norwegian ISPs later responded with similar arguments.
On the other hand, the IFPI claims that restricting access to filesharing sites might actually benefit ISPs. “Illegal P2P file-sharing may have helped drive broadband subscriptions in the past, yet today these activities, particularly in respect of movies, are hogging bandwidth,” they state.
Thus far, the IFPI has won in Denmark. In February, a Danish court ordered the ISP ‘Tele2′ to block its customers from accessing The Pirate Bay. The decision is currently under appeal, and the Pirate Bay recently announced that they will demand compensation for the block.
To be continued…
Previously: Music Industry Tricked Artist Into Anti-Piracy “Witch Hunt”
Next: OiNK’s Bail Date Extended Yet Again by Police
44 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
Pages: [1] 2 » Show All
Bahnhof has been targeted before, I recall a raid in 2005. Back then, some fishy things happend. Rumors have it that an APB (Antipiratbyran) associate placed warez on Bahnhofs servers before the raid.
I only got an german link to this story, maybe “The local” has more:
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/19/19818/1.html
Edit: Here you go
http://www.thelocal.se/1099/20050314/
http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=1157
Don’t know how that settled, though, Any swedish pirates in here able to give an update?
They really dont get it do they?
Ridiculous…
Go ahead, block the piratebay.
They know there are countless better sites right?
They still haven’t got anything in Ireland yet.
They don’t know what they are doing
Seems suing is how the record industry now making money, guess they’re having trouble selling their crap nowadays.
Copyright infringement requires that a physical copy be made, which does not and cannot occur with electronic transfer. It’s like taking a photo of a car. It’s only an image. It’s not the real thing. The largest country in the World and one of the oldest and most sensible, Russia (much older than US), has already concluded that in it’s wisdom.
Also ISPs are not responsible for any possible infringing uses as they are merely a conduit, and it’s not their responsibility to monitor and report on all their activity for some petty cartel.
It’s just another way to defraud and extort. Don’t give them an inch or they’ll take a mile.
Ha, this is ludicrous. I don’t think they have a snowball’s chance in hell. Just wielding their mouths to intimidate. This is one of their latest tactics worldwide. Everyone stand their ground. They are outnumbered 1000s to 1. Without authority to back them they are puny and insignificant.
So are they going to go after the telcos next because phone customers can call a relative on their birthday and perform an unlicensed version of “Happy Birthday” over the phone?
The IFPI, what a bunch of douchebags. When will they learn that Sweden doesn’t a flying rat’s ass about copyright, and neither does anyone but the assholes they’re there to “protect?”
IFPI is the old generation, soon to be superseded by the new one.
when will they sue google? they help us find all these sites after all.
AHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Good luck, this is Sweden!
IFPI is a bunch of idiots. without “so-called” piracy I would never buy a ticket to concert of one of not so much known band in Czech Rep., because I would not be able to download their two albums. Yes, I downloaded 2 their albums (downloading is still pretty legal in our country), listened to them and decided that this band is “MUST see for my own eyes live” and is worth buying two tickets.
OK, IFPI, if you wanna kill music, do it. And don’t tell us such craps that copying/piracy/whatever kills music. It’s actually YOU who is killing music - the real good music that is worth listening, not those craps that we must listen to in radio wherever we move, because in e.g. supermarkets one cannot switch it off. Achmed (the dead terrorist) on you!
“Illegal P2P file-sharing may have helped drive broadband subscriptions in the past, yet today these activities, particularly in respect of movies, are hogging bandwidth”
Do they really believe that? Of course they still make money from P2P -_-’
Most ISP’s here even offer unlimited traffic for a cheap price.
They haven’t actually managed to block any users in Denmark.
Tele2 is a daughter company of Telenor. Telenor also owns other broadband service providers, and all existing costumers have been moved from Tele2 to Cybercity, which does not have a block on the piratebay.
good luck you losers, my country will laugh and shit in your face, classic viking style!!!
AS IF the ISP’s here are going to bend over for you and your stupid intimidation tactics.
hardly anyone EVER gets sued in sweden period, unlike america.
let that be your first lesson.
It’ll never fly.
It’s along the same lines of suing gun manufacturers because of criminals and the like. May as well go after the PC manufacturers, the companies that make blank DVDs, every media player that doesn’t support DRM, and so on too. They all technically facilitate piracy.
They’re grasping as straws, and I’m sure the courts will see this as nothing more than another stupid attempt to circumvent the law by the IFPI, who as a track record of thinking that the law doesn’t apply to them.
hmm those fascist bastards can go fuck themselves as usual
IFPI: Fuck you.
When will the IFPI sue my employer? He doesn’t pay me enough to buy CDs. He’s facilitating copyright infringement.
IFPI: EPIC FAIL
(picture soon…)
IFPI FUCK YOU Once Again !
We don’t care if you force them to monitor us or not.
If we give our ISP 10$ extra, they will never monitor LoL & will give a little more upload speed to share :)
Yeah, right. They just try to pass the buck to someone else.
1 references to this post
Pages: [1] 2 » Show All
Add your response