The campaign carries a petition which hopes to force Norway’s political parties to show their intentions on unauthorized file-sharing.

“Legal file sharing is good. Illegal file sharing is theft,” begins a statement from the organizers, which goes on to say that just because everyone is doing it, it doesn’t mean to say that the practice should be legalized.

“Currently the systematic and organized piracy of digital media is carried out to the extent that the very existence of the basis for artists, composers, artists, filmmakers, writers and other rights holders are threatened,” it adds.

The organizers say that some political parties have proposed the “legalization of software piracy” by compensating the original creators through the budget or taxes, “rather than ensuring that Norwegian law is enforced” against infringers.

The organizers hope that the petition will force Norway’s political parties to become more open and clarify their stance on the issue of unauthorized file-sharing and copyright issues before the country’s elections this fall.

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Now according to a Norwegian report, going after domestic file-sharers has become more difficult than ever before.

Since 2006, the Simonsen law firm – home of notorious pirate-chasing lawyer Espen Tøndel – has been in possession of a license from Norway’s data protection office which enables the outfit to monitor alleged pirates and collect their IP addresses.

But unfortunately for the firm it now has to stop this Internet surveillance, since the license was only temporary, has just expired and won’t be renewed.

The reason for the renewal rejection is that there has been little political debate on the issue since the license was granted. Norway’s data protection authorities had previously requested political clarification and legislation on what licensees can and cannot do. They haven’t been forthcoming.

Simonsen lawyer Espen Tøndel told Dagbladet that he was very unhappy with developments. “We believe that the decision is politically justified,” he said, noting that there should be no reason why the license shouldn’t be extended.

Tøndel further said that his law firm will object against the non-renewal of their license but if they fail, he fears that copyright holders will be completely powerless to stop illegal file-sharing.

“One can not deny [the copyright holders] their right to protect their interests in this way,” he said.

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However, the authority in charge of data protection in Norway has just made that process much, much harder for the copyright holders, since it has instructed two ISPs – Tele2 and Lyse Tele – to delete all IP address-related personal information they hold on their customers which is more than 3 weeks old.

According to Aftenposten the decision, borne of the Personal Data Act which prohibits the storage of unnecessary data, will apply to all ISPs in Norway such as Canal Digital, NextGenTel, Telenor and others.

The fact that data can only be held for just 21 days will see the immediate deletion of IP information held on around 1.6 million subscribers by these Norwegian ISPs. However, the decision flies in the face of European Union rules which say that this type of data must be held for at least 6 months – right now in Norway, data retention can be anything from a few days to five months.

The process of monitoring file-sharers, gathering evidence and then collating it all into an acceptable format can be time consuming. Add this to the time taken to get into the system to obtain a court order from a judge to force the ISPs to hand over data on their customers, and you end up with a period longer than 21 days. By which time the data has gone and the evidence becomes useless, since it’s impossible to identity the alleged infringer.

Movie industry lawyer Espen Tondel isn’t going to like this, one little bit.

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All that is set to change as Norway’s Post and Telecommunications Regulator has just decided that if a court feels there is good enough reason, it can force ISPs to hand over the names and addresses of illicit file-sharers to copyright holders. This means that they can now be pursued through the courts, or more likely, through “pay up or else” type threats.

The decision to allow courts to force ISPs to hand over file-sharers’ details relates to one particular case brought by Simonsen, a company that is licensed to investigate illegal file-sharing on the web. It’s believed that the decision will be applied to future requests of the same nature.

Post and Telecommunications Regulator director Willy Jensen said it was time to make online a “legitimate and structured place,” not of anarchy. “Cultural life on the web is important, so we can’t allow a situation where artists copyrights are broken,” he said.

Simonsen law firm works with notorious movie industry lawyer Espen Tondel, who previously sent a letter to ISPs ordering them, among other things, to disconnect alleged file-sharers. The ISPs refused to compromise their customers, but with this new decision it looks like they may be forced to do just that in future.

Interestingly, the decision of the telecoms regulator opposes the views of the Norwegian Minister of Education who believes that the music industry should embrace the Internet instead of fighting it. “All previous technology advances have led to fears that the older format would die. But TV did not kill radio, the Web did not kill the book, and the download is not going to kill music.” the Minister said earlier.

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Ragnar Kårhus of Telenor said that they follow the law, and not the demands of the music industry. He doesn’t see what law would require them to block sites. “This would be the same as demanding that the postal service should open all letters, and decide which ones should be delivered,” he says.

Previously, a Danish judge ruled last year that Tele2 had to block its users from accessing The Pirate Bay. IFPI argued that Tele2 was assisting in mass copyright infringement, and that access to the site therefore had to be blocked. IFPI is now using this decision in an attempt to force ISPs in other countries to do the same.

However, Kårhus points out that there is a huge difference between the situation in Norway and Denmark. There is no court ruling in Norway, he argued, and a letter from the rights holders is not sufficient. “It is important that these kind of decisions should be made after handling in the judicial system – namely the police and a court of law,” Kårhus said.

Interestingly, the Norwegian Minister of Education said recently that the music industry should embrace the Internet instead of fighting it. “All previous technology advances have led to fears that the older format would die. But TV did not kill radio, the Web did not kill the book, and the download is not going to kill music,” he said.

It is uncertain whether IFPI will follow though with their threats and go after Telenor in court. It wouldn’t be the first time that legal threats have been used as a mechanism for applying pressure.

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ISPs have criticized IFPI’s move, and Pirate Bay’s spokesman Peter Sunde said that “the crazy people behind IFPI should be stopped.” Bård Vegar Solhjell, Minister of Education and Research in Norway sides with Peter in this assessment, as he vouches for the legalization of file-sharing.

In a recent blog post, the minister who is a member of the Socialist Left Party (SV), said that file-sharing is genius, and a great way to discover and access music. “You and I can get access to all the world’s music when we want. Fantastic!” Solhjell wrote on his weblog.

The music industry should embrace the Internet instead of fighting it, according to the minister. “All previous technology advances have led to fears that the older format would die. But TV did not kill radio, the Web did not kill the book, and the download is not going to kill music,” Solhjell wrote.

The music industry fears new technologies according to Norway’s Minister of Education. He believes that if radio had been invented today the record labels would have tried to shut that down too. “But just as the radio and cassettes haven’t killed music, it is a preposterous claim to say that file-sharing does,” Solhjell told VG nett.

Instead of fighting file-sharing and the Internet, the industry should be looking for a system that works for consumers and artists. Spotify is one example according to the minister, who has put ‘legal file-sharing’ on the agenda of his party.

In their new party program they describe it as follows: “SV will explore the possibility of legalizing non-commercial file-sharing of music performed by private persons, in combination with a licensing solution for payment to the licensees,” and Solhjell believes that in the end, both consumers and artist will benefit from an open market.

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Norbits is one of these trackers, a medium sized community with over 10,000 members, most of them from Norway. Norbits has suffered downtime because of DDoS attacks before, but this time the threat may be more serious than that.

In an NFO file obtained by by IT-Avisen, a group called MORRADi takes responsibility for the attack on Norbits. “Once again we show our power! Once again we show your foolishness! This is not the first time we have done it, and it won’t be the last,” they write (translated).

“Enough is enough, you are becoming a real nuisance, and you are also a bunch of idiots that try to hide, so it’s high time we punish you! P2P is not something we want, when will you understand that? Do we have to take it as far as publishing your user database online?”

The message seems to suggest that “sceners” are behind the hack and the attacks, since they don’t want their releases shared on BitTorrent trackers. IT-Avisen journalist Trond Bie thinks this is plausible, as he told Dagbladet: “I know that there are people on the FTP scene that don’t like Norbits. It’s not improbable that such a group wanted to attack the servers. It’s happened before.” Whether the group actually has access to all the IPs, usernames and transfer logs of Norbits users remains unclear.

This would not be the first time that a private BitTorrent tracker has been hacked. Earlier this year the IP-addresses of seedboxes and of top-users on some of the larger private trackers leaked to BitTorrent. Nevertheless, this kind of information is useless to anti-piracy organizations, as it is impossible to verify whether it is legit or not.

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When Simonsen Advokatfirma sent a letter to Norwegian ISPs via the MPAA’s lawyer Espen Tondel, it was probably expected that the ISPs would agree to their outrageous demands. Not so. Instead, IKT Norway – an interest group for ISPs – stood up for the ISPs stating:

“In a constitutional state, the police and the prosecuting authority have the job of investigating and indicting, not lawyers and communication engineers. Most of the big ISPs in Norway are members of IKT Norway and we will support the various ISPs as best we can against what we see as a preposterous demand from Simonsen”

Now, in a detailed letter, IKT Norway has responded in the strongest possible way:

Regarding demands to prevent alleged unauthorized publication.

We refer to the letter from Simonsen Advokatfirma DA on behalf of Norsk Videogramforening dated 4. March 2008, also other letters from Simonsen dated 19 march 2008 and sent to several internet service providers (ISPs)

1. Demands issued to the ISPs

In your letter you claim that the ISPs have an obligation to prevent alleged illegal activity. It’s further suggested that this should be carried out by the ISP by matching IP addresses with customer names and thereafter forward provided letters to the subscribers which (apparently) used the listed, dynamic IP addresses.

Principally we do not consider it an ISPs role to report on suspicions regarding breach of intellectual property rights without a court ruling, to contribute to legal decisions regarding our customers.

The ISPs will of course follow current laws and, if they receive a final ruling which demands action, they will follow it.

However the ISPs do not believe it to be their task to monitor or through their own evaluation and/or the subjective assessments of others, to censor or sanction [content] on the net. It’s important that the rule of law is upheld and that the protection of rights is correct in accordance with the constitution, i.e. the police investigate and the court of law makes the judgment.

2. Roles of the ISP and responsibility

We stress that the ISPs on their own do not breach the law. We believe that you are familiar with the national implementation of the European Info-Soc Directive and that it deviates from Denmark. Your reference to a Danish ruling is not relevant in this case.

(Comment from Norwegian translator: Norway parted from Denmark in 1814, that’s why we celebrate 17th May and they should know better!)

In your letter you refer to the law regarding e-trade and cease and desists. Such an instruction must be issued to the one who’s allegedly breaching your clients rights. A superficial trial to ascertain an copyright breach without the accused being a part of the case, and without letting the accused defend himself according to the normal principle of contradiction, is inexpedient.

The consequence of this will be of such a large magnitude for the individual Internet user that we believe a more though investigation and court involvement is needed. Further investigation [by the police] will show if it’s possible to identify the user which the copyright holder claim has beached their rights, and after this a justified ruling can be made by the court of law.

When it comes to your comment on responsibility and helping out to commit the crime if the ISP does not prevent the alleged illegal activity, we do not agree. An ISP has no responsibility for what the customer does on the net as you suggest in your letter.

Based on this we reject your accusation that the ISPs have a responsibility for the users use of network and devices. The ISPs will not follow your demand to block access/prevent alleged illegal activity.

3. Conclusion

IKT-Norway stresses that it’s important to protect intellectual property. Without a strong governance of intellectual property rights, the incentive to invent and create may suffer. We do not protect nor sympathize with breaches of intellectual property rights, or other actions which breach the law.

However, the work to protect intellectual property must be carried out in such way that it does not breach fundamental constitutional principles. Your private investigation carried out on the net has be further investigated by the police and/or the court of law.

Best regards,
IKT- Norway

Hallstein Bjercke,
Director of “governmental contact”

Thanks to Harald for the translation of the original letter and Happy Birthday!

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It seems that Norway is not alone in this, Jim Williams, the MPAA’s senior vice president opted for a similar disconnection policy in the US yesterday. IKT Norway is not too happy about the letter though.

“In a constitutional state, the police and the prosecuting authority have the job of investigating and indicting, not lawyers and communication engineers”, says Hallstein Bjercke from IKT Norway, in a press release.

“Most of the big ISPs in Norway are members of IKT Norway and we will support the various ISPs as best we can against what we see as a preposterous demand from Simonsen”, Bjercke adds.

He asks the ISPs to contact IKT Norway instead of answering the law firm’s letter. “In our opinion, Tondel asks the ISPs to assist them in their private investigation on filesharers. Tondel’s law firm asks the ISPs to use personal information about their customers in a way that would be a breach on the Norwegian laws on personal information and personal privacy, in addition to breaching the contract between individual customers and their respective ISP.”

“What Simonsen is actually asking for is confessions from the alleged filesharers, which can be used against them if Simonsen decides to sue”, Bjercke said.

IKT Norway makes it clear that the Norwegian ISPs will not take the role of investigator and judge against their own customers. “To give that kind of responsibility to the ISPs is like asking the mailman to control the contents of every letter and package he delivers,” Bjercke says.

IKT Norway is now checking into the legality of the law firms private investigation and the legality of connecting personal information to the customers of Norwegian ISPs.

(translation by Stian Andreassen)

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Yesterday, the OiNK BitTorrent tracker was raided and shutdown, not by the MPAA but by real life, bona fide police, working hand in hand with industry association, the IFPI. The war against BitTorrent – usually played out on the civil law arena – has suddenly found itself in the criminal domain. The rules have changed.

With the whole BitTorrent community asking themselves what comes next, a clear indicator has come from a lawyer who works for the industry prosecuting file-sharers:

Norway is next and raids are imminent.

Espen Tondel is a Norwegian lawyer well known for his legal defeat against ‘DVD Jon‘. He is currently working with the Norwegian branch of the IFPI and MPAA.

Tondel says the Norwegian police are prepared and ready to carry out raids against Norwegian sites. Everything is in place.

When asked to identify the sites, Tondel refused to elaborate other than to say that the investigation has been underway for some time and that enough names and evidence has already been gathered to make prosecutions in several cases.

When questioned about the possible fate of Norwegian members of OiNK specifically, nothing further was added other than to stress the close co-operation between British, Dutch and Norwegian police.

Tondel also speculates on who might be prosecuted if the OiNK database is available to police. His thoughts range from suggesting people who upload and downloaded a lot might be in trouble, right through to ‘random individuals’. Or maybe there is another possibility?

Maybe the police don’t have usable lists.

According to the article, a source has stated that the OiNK membership list was not only encrypted, but also equipped with a ’self-destruct’ type mechanism which relied on a regular signal to continue in ‘OFF’ mode.

Although unconfirmed, this situation would be of some comfort to OiNK’s 180,000 members.

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