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: Legal Blog Watch

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Porn: Broadband Now a 'Legal Right' in Finland

By Eric Lipman

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It's a happy day in Helsinki, at least for those who survived the "traditional sauna and swimming and high levels of alcohol consumption" of the Midsummer Weekend. That's because, effective today, Finland has become the first nation to guarantee all citizens a legal right to broadband Internet access. This sounds like a big deal, but it seems that Finland is so "wired" already that only 4,000 households need to be connected to comply with the law. That's like a moderately busy week for a couple of AT&T installation technicians. The Finns take their grant of this fundamental right so seriously that they're already anticipating a conflict with the proposed EU Piracy law, which would allow governments to cut off access to people who do bad stuff like illegally download mp3s. Finland, though, will simply "send letters to illegal file-sharers." Ah, the "Dear Jaska" treatment, a proven deterrent. Here's a link to an unofficial translation (.pdf) of the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority's regulation implementing the law. Surf away, Laplanders. It's your right!

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on July 01, 2010 (boomark / email).