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| Music Industry Sues ISP to Censor The Pirate Bay Posted: 27 May 2011 03:44 AM PDT
If it’s up to a group of Finnish Music Industry representatives, Finland will be the next country to join this growing list. Yesterday, the Copyright Information and Control Association and the local IFPI branch announced that they have filed a lawsuit at the District Court in Helsinki. The legal action targets Elisa, one of the largest ISPs in Finland, and demands that the Internet provider stops allowing its subscribers to access The Pirate Bay. The BitTorrent site is hugely popular in Finland where it’s listed as the 31st most-visited website according to traffic reports. According to the music industry there’s no other viable option to stop the mass-scale copyright infringement other than to censor The Pirate Bay. “We’ve waited and hoped that the Pirate Bay’s admins would cease the service in November 2010, after the criminal conviction at the Swedish Appeal Court,” said music producer representative Lauri Rechardt in a comment. “That did not happen, on the contrary, the number of Finnish users increased instead.” “The development of a legitimate online market in Finland will not be successful if illegal services such as the Pirate Bay can continue to operate,” Rechardt added. The President of the Finnish Musicians’ Association’s Ahtisaari Vänttinen further stressed the need for effective legislative tools to crack down on ‘rogue’ websites. “It is somewhat tragicomic that, although the illegal activities of Pirate Bay’s founders have been sentenced to imprisonment, the site is still operational in Finland,” Vänttinen said. “Unless this is addressed in Finnish legislation, credibility is at stake. Or is the Internet outside the law?” Thus far several lawsuits throughout Europe have resulted in a Pirate Bay blockade, but not all. A Dutch court ruled last year that two of the largest ISPs in the Netherlands don't have block customer access to The Pirate Bay. According to the court, there was no evidence that the majority of the ISPs' users are infringing copyright through The Pirate Bay, so a block would not be justified. But the tide is changing to the benefit of the entertainments industries, and increasingly lawmakers are warming up to broader censorship tools. In Europe there are talks to adopt a China-like firewall to block websites deemed 'inappropriate,' and in the US blocking ‘illicit’ websites will be simplified if the PROTECT IP Act is passed. Although The Pirate Bay team has weathered worse storms, they are worried about said proposals and told its users earlier this month that "The Battle of Internets is About to Begin." |
| Draconian Anti-Piracy Censorship Bill Passes Senate Committee Posted: 26 May 2011 11:40 AM PDT
Two weeks ago a group of U.S. senators proposed legislation to make it easier to crack down on so-called rogue websites, and today the Senate's Judicial Committee unanimously approved the bill. When the PROTECT IP Act becomes law the authorities can legitimately seize any domain name they deem to be facilitating copyright infringement. All that’s required to do so is a preliminary order from the court. But that’s just the start, the bill in fact provides a broad range of censorship tools. In case a domain is not registered or controlled by a U.S. company, the authorities can also order search engines to remove the website from its search results, order ISPs to block the website, and order ad-networks and payment processors to stop providing services to the website in question. Backers of the bill argue that the PROTECT IP Act is needed as an extension of the already controversial domain seizures. As reported previously, it is now relatively easy for a seized website to continue operating under a new non-US based domain name. Not everyone agrees with this stance. Yesterday several Internet giants including Google, Yahoo, eBay and American Express asked the Senate Committee not to adopt the bill, warning it would “undoubtedly inhibit innovation and economic growth.” However, the concerns raised by the companies did not affect the vote today. "Today the Judiciary Committee took an important step in protecting online intellectual property rights. The Internet is not a lawless free-for-all where anything goes," commented Senator Orrin Hatch. "The Constitution protects both property and speech, both online and off." “The PROTECT IP Act targets the most egregious actors, and is an important first step to putting a stop to online piracy and the sale of counterfeit goods,” Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said commenting on the importance of the bill. “Both law enforcement and rights holders are currently limited in the remedies available to combat websites dedicated to offering infringing content and products. These rogue websites are often foreign-owned and operated, or reside at domain names that are not registered through a U.S.-based registry or registrar,” Leahy added. Similar comments were made by the other Committee members and the various entertainment industry lobby groups. For Hollywood and the major record labels the PROTECT IP Act is the legislation they have dreamed of for a long time. It allows for copyright holders to obtain a court orders to seize a domain, or prevent payment providers and ad-networks from doing business with sites that allegedly facilitate copyright infringement. All without due process. The PROTECT IP Act will now move on to the Senate where it’s expected to be opposed by Senator Ron Wyden, who also stopped the bill’s predecessor COICA, fearing it would stifle free speech. Whether it will be enough to prevent the legislation from becoming law has yet to be seen. Source: Draconian Anti-Piracy Censorship Bill Passes Senate Committee |
If there’s one site that has felt the wrath of Internet censorship the most, it’s The Pirate Bay. The popular BitTorrent site is currently censored in Ireland, Italy, Turkey and Denmark, and 
The U.S. Government continues to back legislation that opens the door to unprecedented Internet censorship. | You are subscribed to email updates from TorrentFreak To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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