Danish ISP forced to block Allofmp3.com

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

A Danish court ruled against the Danish ISP Tele2 and ordered to block all
access to the site Allofmp3.com. According to the ruling, the ISP is
willingly infringing copyright if its customers use AllofMP3 to download
music.

IFPI Denmark sued the ISP, Tele2, in July 2006. It asked the judge to force
the ISP to block access to AllofMP3.com. A few days ago, the judge ruled in
favor of the IFPI, but Tele2 will appeal this decision.

The verdict hasn’t been taken well by ISPs from all over the world. It is a
milestone in the IFPI’s efforts. According to the IFPI it will be referenced
in future cases, not only against Danish ISPs, but ones in other EU
countries too.

The verdict could have very strong implications for the future. It clearly
states that an ISP can be held liable for temporarily (milliseconds) storing
infringing data on their routers. This means that ISPs can be forced to
block websites, if the court decides that these sites are mainly used to
spread “illegal” content.

These are the most critical passages in the IFPI vs. Tele2 ruling :
a.Under section 2(2) of the Danish Copyright Act, reproduction is
regarded as any direct or indirect, temporary or permanent, and complete or
partial reproduction in any form or manner whatsoever. Thus, any form of
copying falls within the scope of section 2.

b. Based on this, the Court finds that the fleeting and random fixation
of the work of music in the form of electronic signals conducted in the
various routers during the transmission of data packages via the Internet
also falls within the scope of section 2 of the Danish Copyright Act.

c. Furthermore, Tele2 cannot invoke the right of temporary reproduction
under section 11a of the Danish Copyright Act, since this provision
presupposes that the reproduction is based on a legal copy.

The head of a Danish telecommunications industry group told Computerworld
Denmark that they “are horrified over this judgment, to say the least. It
means that we must now keep an eye on what our users are doing online. And
blocking user access to certain websites will never be a perfect solution.”

Sebastian Gjerding , spokesperson for Piratgruppen, said: “This case shows
that it has never been the question if Allofmp3 were legal or not. Its part
of IFPI’s more general attack on the freedom of the Internet. They have lost
control over their customers, and they want it back at any price.”
Piratgruppen is the sister organization of the famous Swedish Piratbyrån, an
organization whose goals are reforming current copyright law and protecting
consumers’ rights.

Sebastian added: “The verdict is highly controversial as it brings internet
censorship to Europe. It states that ISPs are responsible for the traffic
they route. In this way introducing a new paradigm, where Internet service
providers are obliged to block sites that the authorities dislike. The
verdict is at the same time so unclear that accusations of copyright
infringement can be used to censor a long list of sites. The result is the
destruction of the Internet as a free space of communication, and the
realization of national borders in cyberspace.”

Danish ISP forced to censor the Internet (5.11.2006)
http://torrentfreak.com/danish-isp-forced-to-censor-the-internet/

Allofmp3.forbidden in Denmark (only in Danish, 25.10.2006)
http://www.computerworld.dk/art/36251?a=fp&i=1

Danish ISP Must Block AllofMP3.com ( 25.10.2006)
http://slyck.com/news.php?story=1321

Verdict IFPI vs. Tele 2 (2.11.2006)
http://propiracy.org/article/11

EDRI-gram : Russian copyright law gets tougher (13.09.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.17/russia

(Contribution by Smaran-Torrentfreak and Sebastian Gjerding,
Piratgruppen.org – Denmark)