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'We Won't Block Pirate Bay,' Swedish Telecoms Giant Says (torrentfreak.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the speak-now-or-forever-hold-your-peace dept.

Last week, a Swedish Patent and Market Court of Appeal ordered The Pirate Bay and streaming portal Swefilmer to be blocked by internet service provider Bredbandsbolaget for the next three years. The order was not well supported by other internet service providers in Sweden, as it appears they don't like the idea of becoming copyright policemen. TorrentFreak reports: Last week ISP Bahnhof absolutely slammed the decision to block The Pirate Bay, describing the effort as signaling the "death throes" of the copyright industry. It even hinted that it may offer some kind of technical solution to customers who are prevented from accessing the site. For those familiar with Bahnhof's stance over the years, this response didn't come as a surprise. The ISP is traditionally pro-freedom and has gone out of its way to make life difficult for copyright enforcers of all kinds. However, as one of the leading telecoms companies in Sweden and neighboring Norway, ISP Telia is more moderate. Nevertheless, it too says it has no intention of blocking The Pirate Bay, unless it is forced to do so by law. "No, we will not block if we are not forced to do so by a court," a company press officer said this morning. Telia says that the decision last week from the Patent and Market Court affects only Bredbandsbolaget, indicating that a fresh legal process will be required to get it to respond. That eventuality appears to be understood by the rightsholders but they're keeping their options open.

27 comments

  1. But what about. . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Pirate-related terrorism last night in Sweden. . .

  2. Are we Surprised? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    The order was not well supported by other internet service providers in Sweden, as it appears they don't like the idea of becoming copyright policemen.

    Policemen in Sweeden don't like the idea of becoming policemen! That would be wasist!

    Sweden is a definate refuge from the rule of law!

  3. Now we know... by sconeu · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Now we know what Trump was talking about...

    Won't SOMEBODY think of the poor content companies?

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    1. Re:Now we know... by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 4, Funny

      70% of Swedish youths are pirates. Don't tell me that number isn't related to Somalian refugees.

    2. Re:Now we know... by cellocgw · · Score: 1

      70% of Swedish youths are pirates. Don't tell me that number isn't related to Somalian refugees.
      Reply to This Share

      Maybe, but I'm pretty sure that the more pirates there are, the less global warming will occur. Just ask the FSM.

      --
      https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
  4. Cheese and Rice by rmdingler · · Score: 1
    Swedes have been in the news, and, more importantly, on the front page of Slashdot, an amount disproportionate to their importance, of late.

    What the frack are you Norwegians and Finns up to, lately?

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:Cheese and Rice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They are busy downloading pirated movies

    2. Re:Cheese and Rice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shouldn't have sold Nokia to Microsoft, but if you consider any Torvalds-related news then Finland is on Slashdot disproportionally often.

  5. This just shows what's really important by lokedhs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We now have a situation where an ISP is ordered by law to block Pirate Bay, but the order (some time ago) to block certain child porn sites is just a recommendation. If that doesn't tell us which crime the authorities are more concerned about, I don't know what does.

    1. Re:This just shows what's really important by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Children generally lack billions of dollars to file lawsuits and lobby (read: bribe) politicians.

      --
      Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
    2. Re:This just shows what's really important by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, when the child porn block list that service providers were recommended to use was investigated by some journalist only about 0,3% of the pages in the alleged child porn blocklist actually distributes or promotes anything resembling child porn.
      The rest was either political content or unrelated pages with a name that could be confused with something related to child porn.
      The list isn't enforced by law simply because it is being managed by a non-governmental interest group that appears to add anything they don't like to the list.

    3. Re:This just shows what's really important by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If that doesn't tell us which crime the authorities are more concerned about, I don't know what does.

      The authorities only seem to be truly concerned with organized violence. They respond harshly to that, typically by killing those responsible before they can become credible threats. As the best and most organized killing power in a geographic region combined with the will to use it, states can suffer no rivals. Other than that, states respond to who pays them best. In democratic states, which tend to be more productive and thus more powerful, the people at large are periodically given a small say in small matters in exchange for their labors in service of their rulers, but most consequential decisions are still dictated by the rulers and those best able to pay them.

    4. Re:This just shows what's really important by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      To be fair unless they are paying for the content it makes more sense to not block it as by RIAA reasoning you defraud them of lots of money by downloading.

  6. We Do Copyright Wrong by Humbubba · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Last week ISP Bahnhof absolutely slammed the decision to block The Pirate Bay, describing the effort as signaling the "death throes" of the copyright industry.

    Kudos to the Swedes for not wanting to be copyright cops. I would feel better about copyright if the laws went back to the US Constitutional constraint of being applicable for only 28 years max, and could only be applied to expression and not the underlying ideas. Then it really would be a tool to incentivise innovation. Nowadays groups like the MPAA, RIAA, and WIPO use copyright weaponry such as DRM and the TRIPS agreement to secure lucrative revenue streams for an unforeseeable future, and while doing so, create a hostile environment for the arts and science, stifling inquiry and free expression.

    1. Re:We Do Copyright Wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would feel better about copyright if the laws went back to the US Constitutional constraint of being applicable for only 28 years max, and could only be applied to expression and not the underlying ideas.
      Nobody wants to watch porn from 1989...

    2. Re: We Do Copyright Wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Porn sites do categorize old porn because some people prefer it, you know... Or so I've heard.

    3. Re:We Do Copyright Wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about one from 1978?

    4. Re: We Do Copyright Wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I do, dey had bush!

    5. Re:We Do Copyright Wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My understanding is it was 7 years originally in the United States. Although you did say max so maybe they had a renew provision. Honestly I think 7 years is too long- can you imagine running a 7 year old program? I don't think we should have copy"right" period though. It's a social objective which at the end of the day mostly just funnels money to a small percentage of wealthy elite- but that in and of itself isn't the reason we should object. I object because it depends on the use of the government and the government ultimately means you are dependent on violence, theft, fraud, and coercion. Those things are fine to use against those whom themselves are using violence, fraud, theft, or coercion, but nothing is lost when a copy is made. If someone misrepresents themselves as the producer you can get them on fraud, but if they're merely distributing content, that's not fraud.

  7. They should block Gov sites for a month. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The ISPs should block all government sites as well as the **AA sites for a day, week, month, whatever. They could also route all traffic coming from Gov sites to **AA. Don't make it permanent, just long enough to make a point. It would be fun to watch and I'm sure the people would understand.

    1. Re:They should block Gov sites for a month. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Wait, do people actually visit the *AA sites?

  8. Get to the core... by MMC+Monster · · Score: 1

    The ISPs should shame the lawmakers and courts involved.

    ie: The following list of civil servants thought this was a good idea and voted it into law. If you disagree, perhaps you should vote for others the next time and be vocal about why you did so.

    If the legislative branch knows they'll get voted out of office over something like this, perhaps they'll think twice.

    --
    Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
    1. Re:Get to the core... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most of those whining about copyrights have never had the ability or invested the time needed to create a unique piece of copyrightable work. Those complaining loudest about copyrights think their human rights are being violated if they are required to pay for their music, books, games, and movies.

  9. Re:Movie pirate cannot be a good christian. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    SAAB lost a contract already, because the US withheld a upgraded radar system that was to be fitted into the planes.
    The nation chose to buy the Lockheed Martin jets instead.

  10. Erroneous title by dinfinity · · Score: 2

    Title quote: 'We Won't Block Pirate Bay,'
    Actual quote: 'No, we will not block if we are not forced to do so by a court,'

  11. How do they expect ISPs to enforce a block anyway? by atrex · · Score: 2

    Sure, you can block a domain name from resolving to an IP address on your DNS servers or you can block an IP address from being accessed on your network, but what good does either of those actually do? TPB mirrors would just crop up all over the place with different IPs and different urls.

    In order to effectively block any site like TPB they would have to put in actual content filtering which would require a huge amount of hardware to ensure that it didn't adversely affect network speeds. Even then, throw HTTPS at it and if it's not doing a man in the middle negotiation (thereby compromising the security of all the traffic that passes through it) it can't read the content to see if it should block it.