Film makers tackle ISP over pirated movie files

Published: 3 Aug 09 16:08 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/21078/20090803/

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Four film companies have filed a motion in a Swedish court to force TeliaSonera to release details about the operators of the Swetorrents file sharing website.

But so far, TeliaSonera has vowed to protect the privacy of its customer, with the internet service provider (ISP) saying it had no plans to release any information about the site’s operators.

In a suit filed last week in Södertörn District Court south of Stockholm, the four film companies, Svensk Filmindustri (SF), Pan Vision, Filmlance International and Yellow Bird, are seeking to utilize a new Swedish law to make it easier for copyright holders to get information about the operators of websites suspected of facilitating illegal file sharing.

The law, passed on April 1st, gives copyright holders the right to seek a court order compelling ISPs to release information that allows rights holders to identify parties behind IP-addresses which can be traced to suspected acts of copyright violation.

According to Sweden’s Anti-Piracy Agency (Antipiratbyrån), which represents the four companies in the suit, Swetorrents has shown little or no respect for the film companies’ intellectual property.

“Swetorrents makes copyright protected films available which they don’t have the right to disseminate on the internet. In some cases, the films haven’t even been released yet,” said Anti-Piracy Agency chair Björn Gregfelt to the TT news agency.

“We’re talking about a rather comprehensive operation. It’s become a drain on the film companies’ revenues.”

Swetorrents is a client of TeliaSonera, which doesn’t want to release any information about its customer.

“If there is an order from the court, it’s highly probable that we will appeal the decision. We’re not just going to hand over the information. It’s our duty to protect our customers’ privacy,” TeliaSonera spokesperson Patrik Hiselius told TT.

“They should be able to continue communicating, in the same way that it’s possible to communicate by sending a letter without having someone read it.”

It remains unclear, however, exactly how the film companies would proceed if information about the operators of the file sharing site were made public.

“It could be that the film companies request that they halt operations, and they may even seek damages,” said Gregfelt.

The case represents the second attempt by a copyright holders’ organization to utilize the new anti-file sharing law, commonly referred to as the IPRED law.

In June, the district court in Solna, north of Stockholm, ordered broadband provider Ephone to hand over information to five book publishers about a server from which audio books were made available for download on the internet.

Ephone has since appealed the ruling.

TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

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18:15 August 3, 2009 by eZee.se
Bit Torrent sites only have .torrent files, which by common sense cannot be copyrighted... now the people who download those torrent files use them to infringe on copyrights, catch them.

Type "the dark knight torrent" on google or "metallica discography torrent" on google and you should get the same thing... but you dont see any of these companies going after google... why? because google would stomp them into the ground, its just easier to go after the little guys.
20:00 August 3, 2009 by peropaco
This is just the commencement of the ripple effect and since the Swedish legal system is composed of four donkeys, a mule and a three hinnies, one of which is Beatrice Ask then anything is possiblö
21:28 August 3, 2009 by grantike
am more really concerned about this comments,its crazy to hear that

"Swetorrents makes copyright protected films available which they don't have the right to disseminate on the internet. In some cases, the films haven't even been released yet," said Anti-Piracy Agency chair Björn Gregfelt to the TT news agency.

if this movies is not released yet i think its a personal problem and not torrent sites and stop looking for isps and internet face your personal problems among your staffs
23:26 August 3, 2009 by eZee.se
"The Swedish legal system is composed of four donkeys..."

I think more than four donkeys because Beatrice Ass certainly falls in this crowd... or does she fall in the "sell outs" or "corrupted" or "big contents wh0r e" crowd?

This one always stumps me...
00:37 August 4, 2009 by Beaver
the first judge in the first case against TPB was a member of copywrite groups, fyi...

ALL INFORMATION NEEDS TO BE FREE, in order for our civilization to advance at the fastest possible rate, which is what everyone should be striving for, not GREED, which is all this is. Have any production/distribution companies gone bankrupt? NO, if any had due to pirating it would be an ENORMOUS news story, but it has never happened, they are ALL making money.
10:31 August 4, 2009 by Céitinn
The difference between searching for a torrent on Google and on a torrent website is that Google does not host ant .torrent files! The torrent websites, a la Pirate Bay, all host the file for us to download, so in essence that 5 or 10kb file which they have on their servers is the noose that will hang them!

Don't get me wrong, I do not agree with this law but that is why they are not going after Google though they have when it comes to You Tube!

All this will do is move us on to the next big file sharing thing, better encryption and so on. Personally I use a VPN for my own protection.
15:41 August 4, 2009 by fazoolmein
Also, the difference between Google and torrent sites like Pirate Bay is that torrent sites usually have trackers as well that help locate computers that have a file to share. Thus, they bind downloaders of movies to uploaders.

This comment is just a clarification, as I am also against this law!
16:11 August 4, 2009 by eZee.se
Actually, take into consideration a feature of googles search... the "google cache" and you can download files from googles servers.. torrent files sometimes that you cant really find anywhere else.

Now that we have established that google is "hosting" the only argument is that google does not have a tracker.. but then the scumbags from the music and film industry have gone after a lot of sites that dont have a tracker...
03:51 August 7, 2009 by bob3000
@eZee

Come on hosting and caching are patently not the same - as someone, who supposedly worked in 'IT' - you might display a little restraint and not torpedo yourself.

Your rabid tendencies are sinking your credibility around here.

The cache only holds a reference to the .torrent file, which is still hosted on the torrent site.

So, no google is not "hosting".
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