AllofMP3 blockade taken down
p2pnet.net News:- It was a “hasty decision,” says Swedish ISP Perspektiv Bredband.
What was?
The decision to act as a Big 4 Organized Music cartel copyright cop acting against AllofMP3.com, the Russian music download site which is being attacked by America on behalf of Warner Music (US), EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France) and Sony BMG (Japan and Germany).
“After heavy criticism from customers and Internet freedom fighters the ISP regrets its decision,” says a Pro Piracy Lobby post, going on to quote Perspektiv Bredband president Fredrik Winbladh as saying:
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.
Protesting when the development of the Internet follows paths we do not intend to travel pays off and a lot of people have done a superb job. From customers making sure the company know that free Internet is what they want, to all the sites supporting the sanctions initiated by Piratbyrån. We, the network ends, have a lot of capacity to influence policies when it is needed and the issue of net neutrality is one that counts.
It is of great importance the we as a telecom and Internet operator, a so called common carrier, focus on delivering information. We can’t risk our position being questioned given the previous statement. The management and the company learned a lot from the debate that took place and we will use this experience to keep developing according to our vision of becoming the prime broadband choice of the Öresund region (Southern Sweden), says new Chairman Mikael Paulsson.
Sweden’s The Pirate Bay was one of the primary Internet freedom fighters the Pro Piracy Lobby story refers to.
“Swedish piratbyran.org (Bureau of Piracy) and thepiratebay.org today launched a campaign to force the swedish ISP Perspektiv Bredband to resume connectivity to the net and stop blocking their users access to the Russian site allofmp3.com,” it said in a press release.
“Choosing to block content that the ISP finds unsuitable is a first step down a shady road of arbitary censorship and old world communication,” it also said, adding:
“We dont want it and wish fake ISPs like Perspektiv Bredband a soon economical bankruptcy, their technological bankruptcy is already all to apparent. Perspektiv Bredband is also known as Eslövs Stadsnät, Malmö Stadsnät and Lunds Stadsnät.”
As part of the campaign, TPB also ran a PHP-script to allow users to block access from Perspektiv Bredband’s subnets.
(Cheers, Lars)
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
Also See:
cartel copyright cop – The Pirate Bay steps in for AllofMP3, December 14, 2005
Pro Piracy Lobby – Blockade removed!, December 21, 2005
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December 21st, 2006 at 4:07 pm
http://swartz.typepad.com/texplorer/2006/12/allofmp3_block_.html
December 21st, 2006 at 7:30 pm
This was a fine way to handle the situation. It shouldn’t be ISPs concern what people view.
-LW-