Court ruling forcing all Danish ISPs to block customers from accessing the famed BitTorrent tracker site forces the country’s ISPs to fight back.
Last year the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry(IFPI) managed to convince a Danish court that ISP Tele2 was assisting in the facilitation of copyright infringement by allowing its customers to access BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay. As a result, the court ordered it to begin blocking access to the site.
The order was a result of a year-long case before the ‘fogderetten’, a Danish court which hears economic disputes. The IFPI initiated the case after Tele 2 refused to block The Pirate Bay or any other site unless explicitly ordered to by law.
Tele 2 RIGHTLY pointed out that it should not be held liable for what content customers transmit over its networks and that it’s really a matter that needs to be sorted out between the IFPI and The Pirate Bay.
Fast forward a year and now a Danish court has ordered all the country’s ISPs to begin blocking access to The Pirate Bay or face fines. The ruling is already causing outrage among ISPs whom promise to challenge the ruling.
“The communication with the Pirate Bay is not in itself a violation of copyright,” says Jens Ottosen-Stott, chairman of TI, the Danish telecom industry, and Danish Telia’s Legal Director (GOOGLE TRANSLATION). “We make communication possible for our subscribers, then have others to take a position on whether it is illegal or not, and intervene. It is not our job.”
Exactly. If we make ISPs liable for the data transmitted on their networks then we face a slippery slope of data packet inspection, site censorship, throttling, and more.
“Our task is to carry information,” he adds. ” When people take a taxi ask the driver where to go, not when they’re out in a lawful matter.”
Ottosen-Stott also rightly points out that if they’re ordered to block The Pirate Bay for its alleged facilitation of copyright infringement, though it only hosts torrent trackers which are not I might add, then what about other sites like YouTube, MySpace, or even Google especially?
“In this case we are involved in unauthorized assemblies on Youtube, MySpace, Google, or whatever it may be,” he continues. ” It is quite cumbersome. So we have made that country’s argumentation is unhappy.”
Stay tuned.
[Hat Tip]
jared@zeropaid.com
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