Another case ended in victory for the music group in 2008, with a blockade of The Pirate Bay the end result.

In 2011 the music industry looked to expand its list of blocked domains by using anti-piracy group Rettigheds Alliancen (Rights Alliance) to attack US-based streaming service Grooveshark via the courts. A matter of months later the coalition of 30 rightsholders prevailed in a case in which Grooveshark took no part.

While the entertainment industries are now well capable of obtaining blocking injunctions against pirate sites, each action has to be targeted at a specific service provider. That means that while an injunction might be issued against one ISP, rival ISPs are free to carry on providing access.

This week, however, all that changed.

Following negotiations with anti-piracy group Rights Alliance, the telecommunications industry in Denmark has signed a Code of Conduct which will ensure that blockades are put in place country-wide.

The agreement ensures that when a court issues an injunction against a single ISP ordering it to implement DNS blocking against a ‘pirate’ site, within days all rival ISPs will voluntarily implement a similar blockade.

Speaking for the telecoms sector, Jakob Willer of Tele Industrien said that industry-wide regulation will support the growth of authorized services.

“In the telecommunications industry, we find it important to ensure rapid and effective implementation of regulatory decisions across the entire industry. It is also important to ensure the development of legitimate online services, where consumers can find what they are looking for and the artists can get paid for what they have created,” Willer said.

Rights Alliance chief Maria Fredenslund is pleased with the agreement which will assist her group and its members to more easily block ‘pirate’ sites at the ISP level. Under the Code of Conduct, ISPs will block domains within seven days of another provider being issued with an injunction.

Commenting on the agreement, Minister for Culture Marianne Jelved said that it’s important for rightsholders to have tools at their disposal when they feel that their music, movies and books are being used online without their permission.

“I am glad that the copyright holders and telecommunications companies in this area are working together to ensure that we have the most creative and legal digital content. The new Code of Conduct is an important step in this effort,” Jelved said.

The Code of Conduct also allows for expanded blocking if ‘pirate’ sites move to new IP addresses or domains. However, the code states that should wrongful blocking occur due to rightsholder error, then the rightsholders will be liable to the ISPs for any financial costs incurred.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

A YouGov study in the same year suggested this was a good move. While many people admitted engaging in piracy they also indicated a desire to obtain their movies and TV shows from legal sources – if those services were convenient and accessible.

Two years on and YouGov are back with a new media consumption study of 1,180 Danes aged between 20-65. Commissioned by TDC Group, Denmark’s leading telecoms company, it reveals encouraging signs for the both the entertainment industry and the government’s strategy, but also an interesting twist.

Firstly, piracy of both movies and TV shows is down. This year’s survey suggests that illegal consumption of movies sits at 5.1 million copies. That’s down from the 5.8 million reported in last year’s study and the 8.6 million from 2012.

TV shows tell a similar story. In 2012, around 10 million TV shows were pirated, a figure that dropped to 8.1 million in 2013. This year’s study shows a drop again to 7.9 million copies.

According to TDC Group media director Ulf Lund, the continued decrease in the consumption of infringing content is due to the development of legal offerings.

“Our position has always been that the best way to combat illegal consumption is by developing good legal alternatives,” Lund says. “This is what we can see now that services like Netflix, HBO, Viaplay and YouBio have really materialized here at home.”

The study’s findings show that the public is responding to this increased availability. In last year’s survey 32 percent of households with resident 20 to 65-year-olds reported subscribing to a premium streaming service. This year that figure increased to an impressive 45 percent.

But while piracy of movies and TV shows continues to fall in the face of impressive take-up of streaming services, it appears that pirates aren’t prepared to kick their old habits just yet.

The study found that the total of those who download or stream illegally has not significantly changed from last year, with 15 percent of respondents admitting that someone in their household had obtained content illegally in the preceding three months, up from 14 percent in 2013.

“Things are certainly going in the right direction, but we are far from there yet,” Lund says. “Magnitude has decreased, but the level is still very high and there are still many who admit that they consume content illegally.”

Image credit

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

On top of many previous ventures, just this week the MPA achieved a fresh set of blocks in the UK to black out SolarMovie and TubePlus, a pair of movie streaming portals that have been growing in popularity for some time. The recent action only adds to a long list of sites currently blocked in the country on copyright grounds.

But while concerted UK action is a fairly recent development, another country not too far away has been getting in on the web censorship action for some time. In addition to wiping out at least 20 gambling-related sites, during 2006/7 legal action in Denmark resulted in the blocking of two famous MP3 download sites, Russia-based AllofMP3 and MP3Sparks. In 2008, then key domain of The Pirate Bay, thepiratebay.org, was added to the list.

After a break of four years, in 2012 three more domains were censored on copyright grounds – thepiratebay.se, homelifespain.com and streaming music service GrooveShark.com. And now a year later, rightsholders have returned once again.

Court documents reveal that Fox-Paramount, Sony Music, Disney, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. and several local companies went to court to have ISP Telia block four of the most popular movie and TV show sites in the region – Movie4K.to, PrimeWire.ag, Swefilmer.com and Dreamfilm.se. The Copenhagen City Court granted the request.

“The four sites are the most popular among users, and the sites each offer thousands of movies without paying money back to the people who have invested in the films. Prime Wire for example offers around 55,000 movies,” anti-piracy group Rights Alliance said in a statement.

“It is a problem for filmmakers because they miss out on the revenue needed if they are to make new films in the future. Instead the money is flowing to the people behind the illegal movie sites. These activities are illegal and web blocking helps us to stop them.”

The anti-piracy group says that while some of the sites offered to remove infringing links, attempts at giving them the opportunity to defend themselves failed.

“We have tried to give the organizers behind the sites a chance to meet up and argue their case by sending information via their domain name registrations but none have thus made themselves known,” Rights Alliance said.

What is interesting about these new Danish blocks is that unlike in the UK where users are simply advised that a page has been banned, local ISPs display a banner which directs users to ShareWithCare.dk, a site that offers links to legal content. It is operated by Johan Schlüter Advokatfirma, the law firm acting on behalf of the plaintiffs in the blocking case.

Meanwhile in Norway this week, an anti-piracy group confirmed they are taking the next steps to having sites in the country blocked on copyright grounds. Unsurprisingly The Pirate Bay is on the top of the list.

“We have been preparing the process for a couple of months, and we anticipate that we will shortly be in talks with several Internet service providers in Norway to block illegal sites. First and foremost we will go after The Pirate Bay,” said Willy Johansen, Secretary General of the Norwegian Videograms Association.

Those talks are expected to get underway early December but although a new law in Norway does allow the blocking of sites, according to lawyer Olav Torvund, the threshold remains fairly high.

“First, you have to prove that there are violations of copyright on a large-scale, then the court must weigh up whether to shut down access to freedom and freedom of information,” Torvund said.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Although pushed for heavily by rightsholders, the so-called “letter model” in which errant internet subscribers are sent a series of warnings informing them that their habits are illegal, is now officially off the table.

According to a Ministry of Culture document seen by TorrentFreak, the government will today announce its “Pirate Package”, an anti-piracy initiative that moves the emphasis away from punishing end users and towards the development and creation of better legal offerings. It consists of a number of components.

The first is the ‘Innovation Forum’ which will provide a platform for “dialog and innovation” for those looking to create and develop digital business models in various creative fields.

“The ambition is that the innovation forum will help to create a foundation for future collaboration across industries and backgrounds with the common goal to ensure that consumers have equal and easy access to as much creative content as possible,” the government writes.

The common theme raised in a number of the initiative’s components is the education of consumers. The Ministry of Culture says it will team up with the telecoms industry, rightsholders and the Consumer Council to launch a joint awareness project later this year to inform consumers which services are legal and which are not.

Additionally, the Ministry believes that one of the problems with the consumption of infringing music and movies is that the public does not understand its “significance and consequences.” It appears that rightsholders will step in to educate the masses on this issue.

“Rightsholders have stated that they will take the initiative to create an information task force that will pro-actively target and communicate with Internet users on relevant sites and forums,” the Ministry writes.

The rightsholders will reportedly seek to change Internet users’ attitudes by various methods, including contacting and initiating dialog with individuals on file-sharing sites “who upload and use illegal material.”

Another effort in the education of consumers will relate to securing existing open WiFi networks and having manufacturers build automatic technical solutions into hardware of the future.

On the ISPs end, outgoing customer bills will include notices warning users to secure their connections and stressing the importance of choosing legal media consumption offers over pirate networks.

The Ministry document also notes that there will be increased effort to remove infringing material from the Internet but perhaps a more controversial element of the Pirate Package relates to the ISP-level blocking of websites such as The Pirate Bay. The initiative hopes to pave the way for a smoother blocking process.

According to the Ministry, Denmark’s ISPs and rightsholders have reached an agreement on censoring sites which will be formalized into a written Code of Conduct.

In practice what this means is that if rightsholders want a site blocked they will only have to take legal action against a single ISP. Once a court decides the outcome (to block or not to block) that ISP agrees to be bound by “the final decision of the court.” Whether this means they agree not to launch an appeal as many ISPs have done in the past remains unclear.

“This is an automated process where the rights holders need only contact one organization / one telephone company, which will then make sure to communicate this decision to the other telcos,” the Ministry writes.

While rightsholders will be pleased at the formalization of the site-blocking procedures, they will be universally unhappy at the lack of any kind of end-user punishment, such as the provisions currently available in France or those forthcoming in watered-down form in the US.

However, opponents of 3 strikes-style regimes are cautiously happy with the outcome.

“We are all very happy that the letter model has been pronounced dead by the Ministry of Culture. It is a huge victory for the internet and for the users,” says Troels Møller, co-founder of Internet-political think tank and digital rights group Bitbureauet.

“The anti-piracy outfits and copyright organizations didn’t get their way this time. I think it’s a brave decision by the politicians,” Møller told TorrentFreak.

“It is a good idea to focus on operating legal services in ways that ensure users actually want to use them, and to facilitate forums to work out new business models.”

Early indications are that rightsholders still want more, with suggestions that they will now lobby for the police to become more active in pursuing uploaders of copyright material.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Former Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde alerted us to a rather peculiar situation at an airport in Denmark.

The local Sidewalk Express there is blocking TorrentFreak because it’s violating the company’s usage policy.

Apparently all sites related to P2P file-sharing are a no-go.

What makes it even more ironic is that The Pirate Bay site can be accessed fine…

Unfortunately this type of censorship is not unique. TorrentFreak is blocked in thousands of workplaces, schools, public buildings and hotspot because of our topic of writing.

Ain’t censorship great?

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Naturally this approach leads to friction since ISPs don’t want to be held responsible for the activities of their users and don’t want to stress customer relations. In order to address the issue, the Ministry of Culture formed an Anti-Piracy Committee who have been trying to come to agreement on how infringements should be handled.

Negotiations between lawyers, rightsholders, ISPs and other groups have been going on since the start of the year and early this month it was finally revealed that Denmark would indeed by treading a 3 strikes path, although exactly how it will do so remains undecided. As usual, everyone is arguing about who bears the cost.

At the moment there are two models on the table. Rightsholders will almost certainly do all the monitoring of file-sharers, but in one model ISPs send out warning letters and in the other the task is handled by a public body. In both models, an independent body assesses the evidence.

The letters to be sent are also set to contain an educational message. While indicating that rightsholders have detected an infringement from the IP address in question, it’s proposed that recipients should also be informed about Denmark’s Copyright Act. Information on how to secure a wireless network and how to block and/or remove file-sharing software will be included along with the telephone number of a helpdesk to answer further questions

Comon.dk have been following developments closely and have made efforts to get information about negotiations from the Anti-Piracy Committee. After experiencing difficulty, Comon was told by Committee members that they had “promised to keep working secretly in order not to create too much fuss” and “could never agree on some recommendations if there was too much public debate about its work.”

Martin Salamon from the Consumer Council, which is opposed to sending out warning letters, confirmed that there was agreement not to discuss matters with the press.

Of course, this is problematic on a number of levels and especially when consumers inevitably pick up the tab. If the entertainment industries pick up the bill initially, their customers pay. If ISPs have to finance 3 strikes, their customers pay. And if the government pays, taxpayers have to pay.

Although it seems unlikely that the government will pick up the bill for administering whichever model is chosen, already it is pledging to get more involved in the anti-piracy fight. To this end it is offering financial support to help the entertainment industries’ battle.

The government says that it has put funds aside to assist in raising public awareness of its anti-piracy message. In a statement the Ministry of Culture said it will match money put into the campaign by rightsholders and Internet service providers. The amount is confirmed to be around 1 million kroner ($187,700).

Earlier anti-piracy campaigns in Denmark have failed so it will be interesting to see if the approach this time will be different. After all, only an insane person does the same thing over and over again and expects different results.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Other approaches, such as the super high-profile and aggressive litigation campaign pursued by the RIAA in the United States, tried to send the message that financial ruination is the inevitable result of sharing music files.

The movie industry’s MPAA tried a “we’re looking over your shoulder” angle with their Internet-only ‘You Can Click But You Can’t Hide’ campaign which was designed to reinforce the notion that file-sharers are not anonymous and can be held accountable.

Untold other campaigns from a myriad of anti-piracy groups followed, from educating kids in schools and persuading boy scouts to take a copyright awareness badges, right up to trying to convincing the public that there is a human consequence to sharing files. Creators everywhere will starve, entertainment will come to an end, and this dark future can only be avoided by buying media instead of downloading it, they cautioned.

Like their counterparts in other parts of the world, Denmark’s Antipiratgruppen have been working tirelessly with anti-piracy activities of all kinds during recent years as they desperately try to discourage people from downloading media from the Internet. In common with similar campaigns from America to Asia, the end results are largely the same – they have failed to reduce the overall numbers of people sharing files.

That’s according to a new survey conducted by YouGov Zapera on behalf of publication MetroXpress. Carried out during the first week of August 2010, the survey consisted of interviews with a representative sample of people aged between 18 and 74 years old.

When questioned, 23% of respondents said that they had the ability to find and download music and movies from the Internet. In 2009 that figure was 20%. When it came to music alone, 27% of respondents said they had downloaded from the Internet. In 2009 that figure was 24%.

Troels Møller from pro-piracy group Piratgruppen said that the lack of progress comes as no surprise.

“The advertising campaigns used to prevent illegal downloads have been a waste of money and have in general been a cop-out from the record industry,” he told MetroXpress. “They try to give people a bad conscience about something that there is nothing wrong with. Because you are not stealing from anyone. On the contrary, you are sharing with others.”

Bente Skovgaard Kristensen, who is responsible for copyright issues at the Ministry of Culture, says that the problem of illegal downloading is massive.

“The unchanged position on the course of piracy shows that there is a problem,” she admitted in a response. “Because the scope of copyright violations on the Internet is so large the Government has appointed a committee to look at how to deal with the issue. They report back with their findings later this year.”

The only area where opinion was slightly improved was in that concerning legislation. In 2009, 31% of respondents said that they felt copying of music and movies should be made legal. This year that figure dropped to 30%.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Two years ago we reported on a case where an intentional leak was used as a promotional tool. When the band BuckCherry found out that their latest single had leaked on BitTorrent, they issued a press release instead of trying to get the torrents offline.

In the press release they reported how devastated they were that the single was up for grabs. However, it all turned out to be staged event as we later found out that the person who uploaded the torrent had the same IP-address as the band’s manager.

BuckCherry’s failed PR-campaign was pretty low, but Danish filmmakers have taken this particular promotional technique quite a bit further by blaming a third party for the leak. A few days ago the makers (Regner Grasten Film) of the film Winnie & Karina issued a press release in which they accused the Danish copyright reform group Piratgruppen of stealing the master DVD.

“Until now there has been no ransom demands, but Regner Grasten Film is willing to do all it can to avoid the film being made available for free online,” they wrote in the press release.

The film in question was a big flop in theaters but through the faked piracy threat they hoped to get some attention for the upcoming DVD-release. The press release was ignored by the media though, so they had to release another one a few days later.

In this new press release they went even further by claiming that Piratgruppen was threatening to leak the film on YouTube that evening. Again, the media didn’t pick it up and eventually the filmmakers came clean by stating that the whole story was made up.

In an email to Piratgruppen the studio’s boss Regner Grasten admits that he was desperate because of the bad reviews and disappointing ticket sales. Accusing Piratgruppen of breaking into their premises and stealing the master film was just a joke, Grasten explained in the email.

Piratgruppen couldn’t really see the humor in being accused of a serious crime and called it a “pathetic little media stunt”.

In the end the filmmakers got a bittersweet result, since although the Danish media finally picked up the story, their failure was exposed.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Wanting to have this legal contradiction dealt with by his government, he confessed to anti-piracy group Antipiratgruppen that he had illegally broken the DRM on a hundred movies and TV shows. The full background to the case can be found here.

After Antipiratgruppen missed the deadline to respond, Henrik announced a couple of days ago he would report himself to the police. But now the group has responded, in a way that is possibly as confusing as the original law, although in a way that also makes perfect sense.

Their first paragraph notes that it is illegal to circumvent the “so-called effective technological measures” without the consent of rights holders – a reference to copy protection on a DVD. They also note that making a copy of the DVD in order to watch it on a media center (this issue Henrik is trying to draw attention to) is also illegal.

So far, so good. Now here’s the interesting part:

That said, the main purpose of the rule is to ensure against abuse of films and music being illegally copied and distributed further. The Association of Danish Videodistributors certainly have no interest in suing consumers who like you have purchased legitimate products – quite the contrary.

In a nutshell, Antipiratgruppen says that as long as people buy movies initially, they don’t mind them a taking digital copy for their own use, as long as there is no distribution to 3rd parties – despite both acts being equally illegal.

Commenting on the news, Henrik told TorrentFreak: “I’m glad that they will not prosecute me. But at the same time it’s still illegal, so …”

Henrik says that since this section of copyright law has no effect in the real world, it should simply be abolished so that people know where they stand, since other people in the future might take a different stance.

“Who is to say that if the anti-piracy group suddenly falls over a man with a 1000 films that they would not prosecute him, even though he has paid for his films? Once again: it is still illegal,” he told us.

Although Antipiratgruppen have responded promising not to prosecute, Henrik told TorrentFreak that he’s not going to rest here.

“Act (§ 75C) is not modified / removed yet. Only on the day where the Culture Minister said the law will be removed / changed will my goal be reached.”

Next week, Henrik will try to contact the Culture Minister, who thus far hasn’t been interested in doing much, but at least at this point must realize that there is something very wrong with the law.

The full response from Antipiratgruppen can be found here.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Henrik Anderson told TorrentFreak that in order to force his government’s hand on laws which allow him to copy DVDs for his own personal use, but forbid him to remove the DRM in order to do so, he decided to turn himself in.

Henrik informed the Danish anti-piracy outfit Antipiratgruppen that he had broken the DRM on more than one hundred legally-purchased DVD movies and TV shows for use on his home media center, an act forbidden – but seemingly also allowed – under Danish laws, both detailed below;

12.–(1) Anyone is entitled to make or have made, for private purposes, single copies of works which have been made public if this is not done for commercial purposes. Such copies must not be used for any other purpose.

§ 75 c. It is not permitted without the consent of the rightholder to make circumvention of effective technological measures

“I’ve started this because I don’t want to be a criminal,” Henrik told us, in his own similarly and deliberately contradictory way, noting that he’d requested a response from the group by today, December 1st 2009, indicating whether or not they intend to prosecute him.

However, in the period up to today, Henrik heard nothing from Antipiratgruppen, although their lawyer Thomas Schlüter did speak to the Danish press, saying that it was a political matter but had nevertheless reported the issue to the Association of Danish Videodistributors for consideration. In response, their chairman, Poul Dylov, said they would have a meeting to decide whether to report the matter to the police.

Antipiratgruppen said it would reply to Henrik by they date he requested. It seems they have broken their promise.

“Today was the last chance for the anti-piracy group to come up with an answer,” Henrik told TorrentFreak a few minutes ago. “And although, as you know, they told the press that they would give me an answer before the 1st of December, they have not done that.”

Henrik told us that even though he has broken the law, Antipiratgruppen doesn’t seem interested in responding. “They are obviously aware that there will be an outrage if they reported me to the police,” he points out.

The other possibility, he says, is that Antipiratgruppen themselves don’t see his actions as illegal – but this creates another problem. The Ministry of Culture have already written to Henrik informing him that breaking DRM in this way is against the law.

Clearly frustrated, Henrik told us: “But who should I follow? Those that determine the laws in this country? Or those who are lawyers for the companies that i’m committing a crime against?”

But Henrik has a solution to their inaction.

“I decided to try to see if I can report myself directly to the police, for the case must be resolved,” he told us.

Henrik feels that the situation he is trying to draw attention to can only be solved by him going to trial. Hopefully then the Minister for Culture and the Danish parliament will see that the law has to be changed.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.