Danish ISP forced to close access to Allofmp3.com

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Danish ISP forced to close access to Allofmp3.com

Is Denmark the new China?

brandboerge

8:44 pm on Oct 25, 2006 (gmt 0)

Was shocked to see this on the news a few minutes ago. Danish Internet Service provider tele2 has today received a court order forcing them to shut down danish internet users' access to the russian mp3 site allofmp3.com. The lawsuit was brought by Danish IFPI.

Is it the job of ISP's to censor websites on the web? Is the ISP responsible of the actions performed by the users, in this case downloading mp3's? Another issue is that it is not even certain that the site is illegal according to russian law...

Story here:
[slyck.com...]

The telecommunications industry in Denmark has expressed outrage and concern over the verdict, as they feel it implies ISPs are now responsible for the activities of their users – not to mention a legal gray area where no verdict has been made against AllofMP3.

brandboerge

9:03 pm on Oct 25, 2006 (gmt 0)

The verdict in my poor translation from danish:

"The defendant is forbidden to participate in others' access and [copying] via the website www.allofmp3.com of sound recordings, of which the plaintiff [IFPI members, danish record labels] have the copyright.

Furthermore, the defendant shall take the necessary steps to prevent access for its clients t the website, allofmp3.com and all of its pages and subdomains."

The full verdict in danish is here (21 pages PDF):
[dr.dk...]

brandboerge

2:33 pm on Oct 26, 2006 (gmt 0)

ISP forced by court order to shut down access to unconvicted site - a verdict that will create precedent for all of EU and can completely change the open free internet - oh well, who cares...

brandboerge

2:04 pm on Oct 27, 2006 (gmt 0)

Now the story has been picked up by some more media:

[news.com.com...]

[usatoday.com...]

Does anyone care that their internet service provider can be forced by the law to shut down their access to specific sites now?

walkman

6:09 pm on Oct 27, 2006 (gmt 0)

recently Visa and Mastercard cut $$ access to that site too.

brandboerge

9:18 am on Oct 28, 2006 (gmt 0)

Yes - but that was their own choice.

Imagine Globix or Verizon being ordered by a court to shut down access to a poker site, for instance, just like that - without the poker site having been tried and found guilty? I can understand a site being illegal, and user behavior being legal - but I don't see the reason in going after the ISP, at least as long as the website hasn't been found guilty in some crime. That is censorship.

Next, I guess, SEs will be forced to remove links to this site.

brandboerge

9:20 am on Oct 28, 2006 (gmt 0)

And blogspot will be forced to prevent their users from linking to the site...

zeus

9:45 am on Oct 28, 2006 (gmt 0)

as i know its only one phone company, not the TDC the big one

brandboerge

9:13 am on Oct 29, 2006 (gmt 0)

not yet - but this case will make precedence, and depending on the appeal case, i think the other phone/dsl-companies will follow voluntarily