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ISP Refuses To Block the Pirate Bay
asto21 writes "Previously, representatives from the Finnish music industry filed a lawsuit against Elisa, one of the country's largest ISPs, demanding that it should block subscriber access to The Pirate Bay. In a reply filed at the district court, Elisa has refused to comply, describing the blocking demands as unreasonable."
"The industry groups counter by saying they have been left with no other choices after the criminal conviction of the Pirate Bay admins following their November 2010 appeal failed to close down the site. Instead, the number of Finns using the site only increased."
You'd think they worked out that suing people hasn't worked by now.
When the industry starts giving people what they want - DRM-free stuff they can 'own' and use whichever way they like, at a reasonable price - then piracy will go down.
I really would like to believe that American ISP's would have those guts when the (inevitable) day comes. But I'm pretty sure that they'll be falling all over themselves to comply (especially since most of them are owned by big media companies like Time Warner and Comcast).
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
> claims that blocking The Pirate Bay is the only practical solution to slow down piracy,
That supposes that there is a solution period which can slow down piracy.
Maybe they ought to try competing. Give people what they want: digital content, at a reasonable price, that they can own (like an 8-track, vinyl or wax cylinder) and listen to whenever they want on any of their devices (gramaphone, victrolla, car 8-track, etc).
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
The ISPs rightly refuse... if this is what they're blocking this week, what will it be next and where will they be taking orders from?
One (or more) of the 'agencies' of the U.S.A.? Interpol? Local law enforcement? The PTA?
Blocking access to a specific site on demand from a specific interest group just opens up a huge can of worms. You do it for one interest group and next you know, everybody and their cat is demanding you do the same for them.
After all, if one group can demand it in order to defend their business model, then certainly other owners of IP can too. For example if somebody reposts a post of mine (of which I automatically own the copyright) in part or in whole, they're breaking my copyright - I think I need to request that access is blocked to every proxy in the planet from Finand.
Then there's the whole "morality" groups - how about, say, muslim groups demanding that access to sites of newspapers critical of Islam is blocked, pro-democracy groups demanding blocking of critical sites, anti-democracy groups demanding blocking of pro-democracy sites, misguided animal-rights groups demanding blocking of access to bonsai-cats and more.
After all, as the argument would go, those sites facilitate the spread of defamatory posts and even posts that incite hatred on religious or political grounds (yes, there are places were this is against the law and said law is vaguelly enough written that pretty much everything fits until it comes in front of a court and is proven).
"Burger King, you must not serve those customers because they are villains. Macdonalds, you are free to continue taking their custom."
just like when Napster was shut down, over a dozen others sprang up to take its place...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
"Burger King" are obviously royalists who aim to overthrow the US republic and replace it with a monarchy. You can clearly see it in their name. Really, what's their defence?
Dutch music & movie trade association BREIN won a lawsuit against The Piratebay in 2009 (it was covered onSlashdot). When it became clear The Piratebay wouldn't actively block Dutch users, BREIN started to sue Dutch ISP's, but none of them caved. Now, two years later, The Piratebay is still available through all Dutch ISP's, despite all of the lawsuits.
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
I honestly believe that the only result of blocking this address would result in more and more users of Tor (or the like).
Well, our current system of government seems to have failed miserably. How bad could it be.
"Let them eat shakes."
To use a real world analogy a pirate's bay like Tortuga doesn't mean everyone there is a pirate or that they engage only in piracy. It might be a very popular thing among the ships making it their port of call, but it's not really the harbor master's business. TPBs defense has been simple, all content is there at direction of users. You can call it a thin defense but it's been strong enough that it's still running...
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
But I'm not one of those.
To be honest I really never understood how it has become to be the accepted way, to pay people for their past services. So you want to be an ubercool gazillionaire? very well provide a constant high value service to people and get paid high amounts for it but don't go asking everyone for money because you first of all men thought of how to wipe your a** after defecating.
Concerning ownership of digital items (data, to the intelligent people): how could anybody put a price tag on a copy of something that can be copied without any costs keeping in mind that the electricity needed for a file transfer of a .mp3 file could easily be generated with rubber and some wool.
-- no sig today
The government says as much: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html
Most people don't know the law, so they fold when they get the C&D.
So you're free to make your own version of Risk or Tetris - but when you write up the rules, you have to use your own words to describe them - you can't just cut-n-pasta the original rules. The rules aren't protected - only their physical expression is (font, layout, artwork).
People are surprised that there's no copyright to a game name or movie title - but that's why you can see 3-4 movies with the same name and different decades at IMDB, and there's no copyright infringement.
Let's call it what it is, Anti-Social Media.
I'm on another equally large Finnish ISP (Sonera), and there is no blockage of TPB. I've not heard of any ISP's here blocking content, other than the failed attempt at a black list for child porn sites a few years ago.
Elisa has been one of the less benevolent companies here in Finland. Of all the telcos/providers, I'd have thought that they would fold the fastest to the demands of Big Media. But no, they did not!? WTF, if Elisa stands its ground, I am pretty sure all other telcos/providers will, too.
As disgusted as I feel for saying this, I still must: well done Elisa, you make me proud for being a Finn.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
You can call it a thin defense but it's been strong enough that it's still running...
No, it IS a thin defense, especially in light of their nasty-grams back to companies asking them to remove pirated content, even while the Pirate Bay removes child porn. It's a totally disingenuous "We have no control over the content! Unless we don't like it, then we'll do stuff. Did you blink? Because we just sent an email to the copyright owner telling them to go fuck themselves (thus proving what our intentions are), and now we suddenly don't have control anymore!"
As someone who has worked for an ISP this comes as no surprise.
At the end of the day we know what the customers want - they want free films, free music and pirated software. The Pirate Bay provides the means to locate such stuff.
While the most prolific users are a problem, ISPs provide access to this medium - if we block the P2P sharing sites then our customers will go elsewhere, and in a market which is highly competitive we cannot afford to lose such a large section of our market.
I got no (practical) options for my broadband here just 10 miles outside of Seattle WA.
What is this "competition" thing I keep hearing about? Where do I go to get _that_?
Maybe it's something they have in free countries, but I live in the U.S.A. where all the meaningful markets are closed, and most of the menaingless ones are soon tto follow under the boot-heels of NPEs.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press