Copyright Law

Swedish ISP Fights Anti-File-Sharing Law

By soulxtc

Will no longer store IP address data, making investigations “impossible” say police.

Last week Swedish ISP Tele 2 announced that as result of demands from it customers it will stop storing their IP addresses in a bid to fight back against the country’s passage of a law making it easier for copyright holders to go after individual file-sharers.

“In certain cases, this will make an investigation impossible,” said Stefan Kronkvist, the head of Swedish police’s internet crime unit.

Passed on April 1st, the law allows copyright holders to seek court orders forcing ISPs to divulge the names associated with IP addresses suspected of sharing content illegally.

However, Tele 2 says it studied the anti-piracy legislation and concluded that it had no legal obligation to store IP addresses.

Tele 2 is the second ISP to refuse to comply with attempts by copyright holders to go after suspected file-sharers.

“We will erase the IP addresses after they have been used for our internal use, starting today,” Niclas Palmstierna, Tele2’s managing director for Sweden, told AFP.

MP Karl Sigfrid of the Swedish Moderate Party has been against the new anti-file-sharing crackdown from the beginning, and has urged ISPs to follow in Tele 2’s footsteps and discontinue the practice of storing IP addresses.

?I have myself sent an e-mail to my internet provider Bredbandsbolaget and asked them to stop keeping records of IP-addresses?, says Sigfrid to news agency TT.

With reports that Internet traffic has dropped by almost half since April 1st, the day the law took effect, providing customers with a degree of anonymity may just be what Swedish ISPs need if they wish to maintain a healthy customer base.

jared@zeropaid.com

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on May 04, 2009 (boomark / email).