music_news 91 posts

The RIAA tries to optimize its litigation practice. After a recent setback when a district court ruled that the RIAA is to pay the legal fees for the defendant in a dismissed case, the organization came up with a new idea.

According to Digital Music News the RIAA has recently offered ISPs an option for their subscribers. People can avoid costly litigation and even receive a pre-lawsuit discount. "An early notification will give your customer the opportunity to settle any claims before a suit is filed against them at a reduced rate (discounts of $1000 or more)," the letter states.

The ISPs willing to cooperate will have to keep user logs for 180 days. "This timeframe is necessary to allow sufficient time to pursue the Doe lawsuit and subpoena if settlement... read more

At the beginning of December a Swedish ISP decided to block its users in Sweden and Denmark  from accessing AllofMP3.com.

This move received a fair amount of criticism as the Perspektiv Bredband ISP admitted it was a moral and not a legal standpoint.

As a part of a protest campaign against such moral Internet censorship by ISPs Piratebay in turn blocked Perspektiv Bredband customers from accessing the PirateBay BitTorrent tracker.

A week later Perspektiv Bredband had reversed its decision and opened access to AllofMP3.com.

“We made a hasty decision and we withdrew from our mission. We are sorry about this. Together with our new chairman of the board, the management agrees that limiting Internet access is not within the framework of our business,” said Fredrik Winbladh, President of Perspektiv Bredband.


Read more:
Swedish ISP Unblocks... read more

Piratebay has launched a campaign against a Swedish ISP that had decided to block its customers from accessing AllofMP3.com. In turn Piratebay will block the Perspektiv Bredband ISP from accessing the popular PirateBay BitTorrent tracker.

In a statement at piratbyran.org Piratebay insists that the Perspektiv Bredband ISP acted in the interests of powerful media companies rather then in the interests of the customers. “After dialogues with Swedish and Danish anti-piracy organisations Perspektiv Bredband has blocked access of allofmp3.com for both their Swedish and Danish customers. In Sweden there is no legal reason to do so since allofmp3.com is legal to use. Perspektiv Bredband clearly states in their press release that it is a moral and not legal standpoint.”

"Perspektiv Bredband has every right in the world to block whichever site they want on their own net," the statement goes on. "And their customers have every right in the... read more

An English translation of the Danish court decision which ruled that a provider shall block its customers from accessing Allofmp3.com has been posted on the Internet.

In short the provider shall block the site as it’s illegal. The site is illegal because music is “offered for very low price on the website as well as …[because of] the information from the Russian branch of IFPI…” Actually IFPI believes that the body which licensed AllofPM3.com should have asked IFPI first. However IFPI couldn’t prove it neither in Russian nor in any other court. It remains unclear what kind of evidence could persuade the Danish court that Russian legislation has less force than information from IFPI.

Read more:
IFPI vs Tele 2 ---- in English, p2pnet
Danish ISP forced to block customers from AllofMP3.com, AllofMP3 Blogs

What do the Australian ARIA Awards have to do with IFPI? John Kennedy, IFPI’s chairman and CEO visited Australia for the ceremony and used a chance to convey the idea of word wide censorship to the local population.

The Sydney Morning Herald cites the main points of Mr. Kennedy’s message about ultimate control of users. "What we hope is our next step is to engage ISPs in performing a role in dealing with piracy online… If ISPs refuse to co-operate, Mr Kennedy said he would take his requests up to Australian politicians. "We're saying to governments: If the ISPs aren't willing to do this on a voluntary basis, isn't this something you're prepared to regulate? … Mr Kennedy admits that the measures he has taking are "draconian", but said it was the only way to convince users to obtain their music legally."

However, does he talk about forcing people to buy music legally or does it all mean forcing people to buy music for an artificially high cartel price? Is freedom a price high enough for the labels' well-being?
read more

In this long dispute between the site and IFPI the latter will try everything to push AllofMP3 out of business. The WTO thing did not work. Russia defends its conditions of entery and its negotiators said this week that unless their conditions are accepted, Russia is not interested. (Just to remind, there was a condition from USA lobbyists – that Russia must shut the site to be able to join WTO).

Another recent attack by IFPI is a civil suit in Denmark against one of the ISPs there. And this week the court finally ruled that Tele2 must block its customers from using AllofMP3.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. “I’m shocked about the verdict, and view it as censorship. Tele2 and other Internet service providers provide free access to information on the internet, but now have to sort this... read more