p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Norway, home of the Nobel peace prize, seems to have joined Sweden in paying obeisance to the feral corporate entertainment cartels.

With every passing day, the lines of demarcation between the corporate studios and labels and their customers become even more pronounced, the latest incident being the for-the-moment culmination of the entertainment industry lawsuit in Sweden against the guys running The Pirate Bay.

It’s hard to believe that having, over the decades, amassed eye-popping fortunes on behalf of their shareholders, Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and adherents thereof, are not only watching their revenues haemorrhage away, they’re taking an active part in making it happen.

The executives in charge and the lawyers advising them seem to believe they’re still in the 20th century when they controlled the media and ‘consumers’.

But the offline print and electronic outlets are no longer relevant. Increasingly, people around the world are looking to themselves and each other as news, information and data providers, and ‘consumers’ are once against customers who decide what they want and who they’ll get it from.

And the cartels can’t do a blind thing about it.

Identities aren’t secure

“The recently implemented IPRED legislation in Sweden makes it easier for copyright holders to identify and go after alleged illegal file-sharers,” says enigmax in TorrentFreak, going on up until now, the same hasn’t been easy in Norway.

But all that’s about to change, he says, going on,  “Norwegian file-sharers transferring illicit content on the Internet are about to find out that their identities aren’t as secure as they were previously. To date, the identities of these file-sharers has been kept secret as privacy rules have largely stopped copyright holders discovering real-life names behind IP addresses.”

Norway’s Post and Telecommunications Regulator has decided a court can now, “force ISPs to hand over the names and addresses of illicit file-sharers to copyright holders,” says the story.

“This means that they can now be pursued through the courts, or more likely, through ‘pay up or else’ type threats.”

The decision relates to a case brought by Simonsen, licensed to investigate illegal online file-sharing on the web, says enigmax.

Now, “Post and Telecommunications Regulator director Willy Jensen said it was time to make online a ‘legitimate and structured place,’ not of anarchy,” states TorrentFreak, which also has Jensen saying:

“Cultural life on the web is important, so we can’t allow a situation where artists copyrights are broken.”

Simonsen works with “notorious movie industry lawyer Espen Tondel (right) who, “previously sent a letter to ISPs ordering them, among other things, to disconnect alleged file-sharers,” says TorrentFreak, going on, “The ISPs refused to compromise their customers, but with this new decision it looks like they may be forced to do just that in future.”

Simonsen — Hollywood scavenger

“A 16-year-old Norwegian boy said to have been running the Direct Connect Stavanger Dragon Hub may escape jail for alleged file-sharing,” said p2pnet in 2007, going on

“Rogaland police, ‘aim to get the accused a suspended sentence of 60 days in jail and a fine of NOK 4,000 ($644),’ says Aftenposten, quoting Dagbladet. ‘We will calculate how much music and how many films were shared, how many copies are distributed and the value of this,’ the story has lawer Espen Tøndel saying, adding:. ‘We may demand compensation in a civil suit after the criminal case. It can quickly work out to a six-figure sum’.”

Not only but also, IFPI Norwegian videogram association (Norsk Videogramforening) and the Norwegian Film Distributors Association (Norske Filmbyråers Forening), “had lawyers at Simonsen Advokatfirma send a letter to Telenor … asking the telco to block ThePirateBay.org, so none of its broadband subscribers would be able to use it, said IT Examiner lasy month.

But Telenor refused to cooperate.

“ISPs are not complicit in the actions of its customers on the Internet,” Telenor told the IFPI hacks, going on, “Furthermore, Telenor sees no legal basis for the demands of copyright holders,” adding,  “asking an ISP to control and assess what Internet users can and cannot download is just as wrong as asking the post office to open and read letters and decide what should and should not be delivered”.

Nor was Telenor alone.

“The IFPI probably figured Norway’s Bård Vegar Solhjell, minister for education, would roll right over when it [the IFPI] ordered the country’s largest internet provider Telenor to block Pirate Bay, said p2pnet, going on »»»

But all it achieved was to encourage him to, “defend the principle of file sharing,” says The Guardian.

“All previous technology advances have led to fears that the older format would die,” he blogged, adding:

“But TV did not kill radio, the web did not kill the book, and the download is not going to kill music.”

Said IT Examiner, “Apart from telling IFPI and colleagues it paid lawyers for nothing, Telenor declared the business models for distributing and selling digital content over the net were antiquated. Content holders had yet to adapt to the modern world ‘and the reality of the Internet.’

“The Norwegian operator opined copyright holders ought to come up with business models viable for the digital age of broadband internet, instead of moping around and blaming everyone else.”

Definitely stay tuned.

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for-the-moment culmination – Unspinning the spin, April 19, 2009
guys running The Pirate Bay – The Pirate Bay decision leak ‘a bit LOL’, April 18, 2009
TorrentFreak – Norway Makes it Easier to Go After File-Sharers, April 19, 2009
p2pnet – Norway p2p teen charged, January 5, 2007
IT Examiner – Telenor blasts IFPI over Pirate Bay, March 2, 2009
p2pnet – Downloading OK, Norway minister tells IFPI, February 24, 2009
The Guardian – International Federation of Phonographic Industry, February 23, 2009