TorrentFreak

The IFPI is stepping up its war on copyright infringement by suing the current administrators of The Pirate Bay, the Internet’s most famous torrent site. The lawsuit, filed in the Helsinki District Court, demands that the operators of TPB stop facilitating the unauthorized distribution of music and pay compensation to rightsholders. For good measure, IFPI is demanding that two more local ISPs block the site.

The Helsinki District Court has ordered the Finnish ISP Elisa to block subscriber access to The Pirate Bay. The ISP has to block the domain names and IP-addresses of the world’s most-visited torrent site before the end of next month or face a 100,000 euro fine. Elisa described the court order as vague and ineffective, and has announced that it will appeal the decision.

A group of music labels currently taking action against The Pirate Bay in Finland have pulled off something anti-piracy groups in other countries have been dreaming of. Following file-sharing complaints filed earlier this year, a court has now issued orders for the ISPs of three subscribers to disconnect them from the Internet.

The Pirate Bay is at the center of a new lawsuit filed at the District Court in Helsinki, Finland. Music industry representatives have filed suit against one of the major Internet Service Providers in the country, demanding that it blocks subscriber access to the BitTorrent site. The Pirate Bay is currently one of the most visited websites in Finland.

In an effort to reduce illicit file-sharing, draft legislation was passed in Finland last week which will require Internet service providers to send letters to customers suspected of unauthorized sharing. The warnings will be initiated by copyright owners, but at no stage will Internet subscribers’ identities be compromised. A three strikes-style regime is not on the agenda.

Following in the footsteps of the UK, Finland is preparing a new piece of legislation that will make it mandatory for Internet providers to warn customers who download music and movies without consent from copyright holders. The proposal is meant to cut down piracy in Finland but both pro and anti-piracy outfits have their doubts abouts its potential effectiveness.

Seven operators of the Finnish BitTorrent site Finreactor have been ordered to pay a total of 680,000 euros in damages to copyright holders for their role in the distribution of copyrighted files. The admins, several of whom were underage when they were involved with the site, were seen as essential parts of an illegal network.