IFPI: If Lawsuits Aren't Working In Denmark, We'll Seize Computers To Get Evidence

from the um,-wow dept

We just wrote about how the Danish anti-piracy group was dropping its lawsuits against individual file sharers after realizing that Danish law made it almost impossible for the industry to win those cases. However, as pointed out by brokep, the international wing of the recording industry, the IFPI, wasted little time in trying to spin the news in its favor (Google translation of the original). The IFPI insists that the lawsuits won't stop, but just that the anti-piracy organization was realizing it needed more detailed evidence -- and this means that it will now start seizing computers to get evidence. Now, the Google translation trips up over the word "beslagslaeggelse," but multiple Danish speakers have confirmed that the word means "seize" or "confiscate." Of course, that raises some questions about why a private organization representing record labels has any right to seize computers of individuals. I think they were better off when they just admitted they were going to give up on the counterproductive legal strategy.

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Danish Anti-Piracy Group Withdraws All Its Lawsuits Against Individuals (After Losing Most Anyway)

from the nice-work dept

While the RIAA has backed down (but not stopped) lawsuits against those accused of file sharing in the US, it looks like the Danish anti-piracy bureau has decided to drop all of its lawsuits after it became clear that individuals were basically winning them all (Google translation of the original, found via brokep). Basically, the courts acquitted most of the individuals accused of private file sharing, with the one exception being the case where the guy confessed. And, the nature of the rulings in the acquittals made it clear that it was virtually impossible to win a lawsuit against individuals for file sharing. Of course, we have no doubt that the industry will continue to use other means, such as via regulatory capture, to continue to look for ways not to give consumers what they want.

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Little Mermaid Statue Free To Be After Artist's Estate Didn't Expect Negative Publicity

from the funny-how-that-works dept

On Friday, we wrote about how an artist's estate was going after a small town in Michigan, for daring to have a "Little Mermaid" statue to play up many of the town's Danish ancestors. There's a famous Little Mermaid statue in Denmark, and the artist's estate (the artist died fifty years ago) apparently thinks all such statues infringe on its copyright (even though this statue was very different). However, in our comments over the weekend Christopher alerted us to the news that the estate had withdrawn the copyright infringement claim, apparently citing the publicity as the reason. Apparently, being a copyright bully can have a bit of a backlash...

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Copyright Cops Go After Town For Creating Little Mermaid Statue

from the cultural-artifacts dept

Dan sends in yet another story about copyright gone wrong. Apparently the small town of Greenville Michigan has a strong Danish heritage, and wanted to show that off with some artifact representing Denmark. It chose the iconic Little Mermaid statue, based on Hans Christian Andersen's story, and a similar iconic statue in Denmark. Apparently, however, the family of the artist who created the statue in Denmark is trying to clamp down and is demanding a lump sum payment or that the statue be taken down. The actual artist died in 1959... but thanks to recent extensions in copyright (yippee), copyright now lasts life plus seventy years.

Of course, I'm wondering if the statue even violates the copyright at all. While the town says it was inspired by the one in Denmark, the actual statue is different:

At about 30 inches high, it's half the size of the original and has a different face and other distinct features, including larger breasts. "We've gotten a lot of heat about that too," he says

Considering that so much of the statue is different, is it even a copyright violation at all? Apparently, this isn't the only town that's faced problems over such statues. The article notes, amusingly, that Vancouver, British Columbia -- after failing to get permission from the artist's estate -- instead put up a statue entitled "Girl in a Wetsuit" and even added swimming fins and goggles to get the point across. It's hard to believe that this one artist, whose been dead for fifty years, should have total control over statues of mermaids, but that's what today's copyright law gives us. Isn't it great?

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ISPs And Entertainment Companies In Denmark Look To Set Up Piracy Review Board

from the the-board-declares-you-a-pirate dept

While the EU has repeatedly said that three strikes-type legislation is a violation of basic human rights, there is a loophole. It's been said that it would be okay if there's an independent board reviewing the cases to make sure it's not just based on random accusations. That seems to have brought ISPs and the entertainment industry to the bargaining table in Denmark, where apparently they're trying to hash out the details on some sort of "Pirate Review Board" whose job would be to manage these sorts of disputes. Similar attempts have gone nowhere to date -- and the reports coming out of this one suggest the two sides are also far apart, with the entertainment firms trying to push the ISPs to take on more responsibility and expense.

That said, it's worth noting who's missing from all of these conversations: actual consumers. Effectively, the ISPs end up defending their customers here, but the interests may not be totally aligned. Now, some may say that "pirates" deserve no seat at the discussions, since they're the ones "breaking the law." But the concern is about those on the margin: those where fair use may apply or who aren't causing any harm to the industry. The entertainment industry likes to automatically lump every "pirate" together into a single group, no matter how incorrect or misleading that may be. Someone should be standing up for legitimate consumer rights in the setup of these sorts of panels. ISPs, alone, may not be the best positioned to make sure consumers don't get harmed by a "pirate" review board.

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Danish ISP Blocks The Pirate Bay; But Is It For Legal Reasons... Or Competitive?

from the legal-excuses dept

A year ago, recording industry lobbying group IFPI successfully convinced a Danish court to force ISP Tele2 to block The Pirate Bay. This came after a similar ruling that forced Tele2 to block access to AllofMp3 (which, you'll recall was the big "threat" prior to The Pirate Bay). Of course, these blocks don't work particularly well, and seem incredibly annoying for those content creators who actually want their content distributed through systems like The Pirate Bay.

Tele2 appealed the ruling, and another court found that, indeed, ISPs should be forced to block access to The Pirate Bay. While that case is being appealed to the country's Supreme Court, it appears that other ISPs are being pressured to start blocking as well. Denmark's largest ISP, TDC, is now blocking access to The Pirate Bay.

Torrentfreak suggests that TDC is worried about a similar lawsuit, and did this as a preventative measure, but I have to wonder if some of the thinking is competitive. Last April, TDC announced a deal whereby its customers could download unlimited music... though it was really more of a subscription rental service that included DRM. So, basically, here's a way that TDC gets to block out a "competitor" to its own service, and then blame the legal rulings for being able to do so...

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Danish High Court Says ISPs Must Be Internet Policemen; Have To Block The Pirate Bay

from the keep-on-blocking dept

Earlier this year, we noted, with surprise, that a Danish court had ordered Tele2, a large ISP, to block all access to The Pirate Bay website. This followed an earlier ruling requiring Tele2 to block access to AllofMp3.com. It's never been clear why an ISP should take on the responsibility of blocking access to a site, and Tele2 appealed the ruling. Unfortunately, it looks as though the company has lost. The Danish High Court has apparently sided with the IFPI, and says that, indeed, Tele2 must block The Pirate Bay. Of course, this is unlikely to matter. Whenever these blocks are ordered, there are always ways around them, and the attention from the blocks tends to alert more people to the site's existence.

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Danish Man Fined For Sharing Music, But At Around $2/Song

from the seems-a-bit-more-reasonable dept

It looks like the IFPI has won a lawsuit against a guy in Denmark, who was accused of sharing over 13,000 songs. From the brief description on TorrentFreak, it sounds like there was plenty of evidence pinning this directly to the guy (though, it's not clear if there's evidence that he actually shared the files, or simply made them available). Either way, what's more interesting is that the court has fined him approximately $24,400, or a bit less than $2 per song. As the article notes, the court estimated actual losses from the file sharing, and then used a "doubling up" method. So it sounds like the court said each file cost a little less than a dollar and the fine was double that. While the whole issue of suing people for file sharing still seems a bit absurd, you have to admit that approximately $2/song seems a lot more reasonable than the $750 to $150,000 per song that the RIAA pushes for in the US (and in the Jammie Thomas case it actually got $9250). Even so, the guy in Denmark is thinking about appealing the "doubling up" aspect, believing that even that fine is too high, as there's no evidence that his file sharing resulted in any reduction in sales for the recording industry.

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Pirate Bay Wants IFPI To Pay Up For Danish ISP Block

from the poking-ifpi-with-a-stick dept

The folks behind the Pirate Bay certainly aren't ones to shy away from a fight. In fact, they seem to enjoy it. The latest is that they're demanding compensation from the IFPI for downtime associated with the IFPI's successful efforts to force Danish ISPs to block access to The Pirate Bay. The Pirate Bay says it will ask for a "reasonable" sum, rather than an extraordinary amount as is typical of the entertainment industry. It also says it will use any money it gets from the IFPI to fund Danish artists who want to give away their works online. While the guys at the Pirate Bay reasonably complain that the entire lawsuit between the IFPI and Danish ISPs never involved The Pirate Bay or gave the site a chance to make its own argument (despite being entirely about the site), this request for compensation may be pushing the boundaries a bit -- especially considering that even The Pirate Bay folks have admitted that the ban eventually resulted in more traffic. Perhaps they should send some money to the IFPI to thank them for all that "free" advertising.

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Danish ISP Latest To Offer Crippled DRM-Infested Music Subscription Service

from the read-the-fine-print dept

While the press is reporting that TDC, Denmark's largest ISP, is now offering free music downloads at no additional charge, the fine print leaves much to be desired. It turned out (not surprisingly) that these "free downloads" are DRM-infested and will stop working if you leave TDC. That would suggest that they can't be transferred to certain devices (such as iPods) and users will have no ability to promote songs by sharing them with friends. Also, there's a rather limited song selection. While three of the major labels have signed up, there are only one million songs -- or less than 17% of the songs found on iTunes. It makes for a nice headline, but it's difficult to see this getting very far.

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Danish Block Of The Pirate Bay Leads To Even More Traffic

from the nice-publicity-stunt,-IFPI dept

We've noted in the past that every time the RIAA or the IFPI scores a "significant blow" against an operation they accuse of piracy, it only seems to drive more attention to those sites. That appears to be happening once again. Since the IFPI convinced a Danish court to block users from accessing the Pirate Bay, traffic from Denmark to the Pirate Bay has actually increased, thanks mainly to the news coverage of the story. So, for such a significant blow, it appears that all the IFPI has succeeded in doing is providing free advertising for the Pirate Bay.

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Danish ISP Doesn't Understand Why It's Supposed To Block Pirate Bay

from the fighting-it dept

Earlier this week, we noted that a Danish court had told ISP Tele2 that it needed to start blocking access to the Pirate Bay. Last year, a court had also ordered Tele2 to block access to AllofMp3.com. Tele2 complied with that first order, though apparently it was quite easy to get around the block (no surprise there). However, apparently sensing the outrage being felt concerning these blocks, Tele2 is considering fighting back against the order (with support from other ISPs). The company claims that it needs "clarification" on the ruling, though doesn't seem to provide much more detail than that at this point.

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Danish Court Tells ISP To Block PirateBay

from the if-at-first-you-don't-succeed... dept

Back in 2006, a Danish court demanded that ISP Tele2 start blocking access to the AllofMp3.com website. It seemed like a bizarre request, focused on just one ISP. While the ISP complied, apparently the block was quite easy to get around and the overall impact of the ban was minimal. However, that didn't stop the IFPI from talking up what an important move it was. Along those lines, the IFPI has now convinced a Danish judge to also tell Tele2 that it needs to block the Pirate Bay as well. Are they going to demand that Tele2 also blocks Google and Usenet? It's difficult to see the rationale behind this -- and even more difficult to understand why they think that this time such a block will actually be effective. Yet, of course, the IFPI will talk about what a significant move this is in their ongoing fight against new business models piracy.

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