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Norwegians told to keep shtum on file sharing
Author: Gareth HalfacreePublished: 4th April 2008
The Norwegian Consumer Council is advising recipients of the letter that signing would be a very bad idea.
The letters – of which there are at least three hundred so far – identify the users by IP address, and accuse them of sharing copyright video via peer-to-peer networks. If the ISPs cooperate and give the letters to their customers, the recipient is asked to sign and return the letter as a promise never to do it again on threat of legal action. However, that doesn't get them off the hook: should an individual be daft enough to sign and return the letter, it makes them liable for both former and future file-sharing activity on the identified IP address – even if carried out by a different member of the household.
Hans Marius Graasvold, an officer of the NCC, is warning people that to sign would be an act of lunacy. In a statement to press, Graasvold described the letters of depriving the customers of their right to due process, and placing them in a state of legal uncertainty that leaves them open to future lawsuits – with the signed letter being the star witness for the prosecution. Graasvold describes the threat of disconnection on unproven accusations of file sharing as being a “violation of that person's human right to participate in society,” while acknowledging the need to respect copyright law.
The Norwegian ISP industry association isn't too impressed with this turn of events, either. The group is advising its members to ditch the letters in the nearest bin and not to forward anything from the law firm to any of their customers.
The attitude of the NCC is a far cry from similar cases here in the UK, with Graasvold stating that alleged violation of copyright law is a matter that “should be addressed by courts and courts alone!”
Do you believe that Graasvold is right and that accusations of this nature are a matter for the court, or is Simonsen just trying to frighten file sharers into being good netizens? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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Comments (15)Stats: 0.221 seconds
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Are the legal company acting on behalf on anyone else (such as the Norwegian version of the RIAA/BPI), and how are they getting the evidence that people may be downloading copyrighted material?
Doesnt the RIAA outsource to a company, that gets evidence by someone downloading a music / copyrighted file from THEM.
However this is not deemed illegal by the RIAA that said company is file sharing?
It boggles my mind, i doubt they pay the artist for the damages they cause for allowing this to happen?
One person downloads song, which in turn allows hundreds (thousands) of others to download from that said person.
Its like honey pot entrapment. They do an illegal activity to catch the 'criminal' but how much damage do they cause?
Have the artists finally got any looksie into the monies received in court?
Ofcourse they are acting on behalf of BPI (most likely) or some RIAA sub-company.
The good thing is that in norway you have to actually press charges before the ISP have go give out any info on any given IP.
And it's not the firm that get the info, but the police that is handling the charges.
So at the current state almost all charges will be dropped due to poor evidence (In norway you have to be proven guilty, and not the other way around)
So I was just wondering whether there's a Norwegian body that represents the record industry, and whether they're the ones instructing the lawyers to send the letters.
I always thought honeypot tactics were inadmissible in court, since they are classed as entrapment. Or am I just imagining that?
I doubt very much that the artists will get anything - in fact, I'm sure I read somewhere that the record companies were looking to *reduce* artist royalties, citing falling sales and piracy...
This has never been about the artists, it's always been about profit and the greed of the record companies.
Harsh words. And they couldn't be more adequate.
One can not, ever, ever, EVER, be removed from social interaction (another way to say arrested) unless convicted of a crime (not accused, not assumed guilty, not even after confessing to commiting a crime!); to do so arbitrarily, because of some private organizations whims and interests, is a clear violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
I think you better unpack. The grass is always greener on the other side, you know...
IIRC the ISPs don't have to give the police anything. I think it will have to go to court to actually get something. The ISP still don't have to give it to them. (Nobody can force you to witness in a case)
The bad thing about this is that the ones that could potentially sign these letters are the ones that doesn't necessarily know what they are signing to, they just do it to get off the hook. I my opinion this is on the limit to fraud or trickery.
Norway has their own lobby-firms just as any other country. Just can't remember what they are called (Think one is called IFPI)
So ofcourse there are lawyers from these firms sending out the notes. It does't seem that any other firms here really care about p2p stuff except the lobby-firms.
Honeypot tactics: You can't really use them cause as far as I know, there is now law against downloading music that they can use.
This just got posten on one of the main Norwegian news sites.
http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2008/04/04/531577.html
It says:
File shareres are buying more dvd's and are going more often to the movies than none-file shares shows the latest study performed by the Norwegian movie association
Unfortunately "honey pot entrapment" seems to being gaining in popularity across all sorts of "offences" not just these digital dodgy dealers, its a byproduct of the right wing slide of politics imho.
The sci-fi films that show a 1984 style controlled society are looking more like predictions than fiction. Here in uk we have got the " controlled society " infrastructure almost inplace, and a government happy to use it..
And I may obtain the odd tv show by download - but watch one free and then buy series, life on mars for example sounded like the sweeney crossed with goodnight sweetheart, tried episode one recognised sweeney but have decide to buy series NOT download it. But the copyright Mafia don't want such scenarios to be possible..