Norwegian ISPs Say No to MPAA’s Demand to Cutt off Pirates

Since he didn’t get quite the attention he was hopping for from the Norwegian police, MPAA lawyer Espen Tøndel (right) has redirected his strategy and is now claiming that ISPs should cut off Norwegian file-sharers from the Internet. As IKT Norway (an interest group for ISPs) stated , the lawyer has forwarded a letter to Norwegian ISPs on the part of The Norwegian branch of the MPAA.

TorrentFreak says that the letter contains Tøndel’s request to the ISPs to inform users who share copyrighted material, and threaten to disconnect them from the internet. Moreover, Tøndel attached a document that allegedly connects the IP-addresses of seeders to copyrighted works.

It looks like Norway is no longer a singular case in this respect; Jim Williams, the MPAA’s senior vice president decided on the same disconnection policy in the USA. However, IKT Norway doesn’t seem too pleased with the letter.

“In a constitutional state, the police and the prosecuting authority have the job of investigating and indicting, not lawyers and communication engineers”, says Hallstein Bjercke from IKT Norway, in a press release.

The representative of IKT wants the ISPs to contact IKT Norway rather than reply to the lawyer’s letter. “In our opinion, Tøndel asks the ISPs to assist them in their private investigation on filesharers. Tøndel’s law firm asks the ISPs to use personal information about their customers in a way that would be a breach on the Norwegian laws on personal information and personal privacy, in addition to breaching the contract between individual customers and their respective ISP.”

Bjercke thinks that what Simonsen actually hunts for is declaration of guilt from those suspected of file-sharing, which can then be used against them if in the eventuality of a lawsuit.

IKT Norway was quite firm when stating that the Norwegian ISPs will not assume the position of investigator and judge against their own customers. The simple claim that the ISPs should take upon themselves the responsibility to control the on line content is seen as absurd.

Currently, IKT Norway is involved into analyzing the legitimacy of the law firm’s private investigation and the legal bounds of linking personal data to the users of Norwegian ISPs.