Here’s a breath of fresh air in the murky world of alleged copyright infringement and associated lawsuits.

Recently, the MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America) sent a letter to Norwegian ISPs, demanding that they disconnect alleged file-sharers from their network. The MPAA’s letter included a list of IP addresses, which they claim carried out the illegal file-sharing, and asked that the ISPs forward notices to the customers after matching names to IP addresses.

However, IKT Norway, an interest group for Norwegian ISPs, stated that the ISPs would be unwilling to comply with MPAA’s demands to shut out their customers, saying that it really wasn’t their responsibility to monitor what their customers did online, despite MPAA’s claims otherwise. IKT Norway stated,

When it comes to your comment on responsibility and helping out to commit the crime if the ISP does not prevent the alleged illegal activity, we do not agree. An ISP has no responsibility for what the customer does on the net as you suggest in your letter.

Based on this we reject your accusation that the ISPs have a responsibility for the users use of network and devices. The ISPs will not follow your demand to block access/prevent alleged illegal activity.

I’d say the Norwegian ISPs are fighting the good fight here. Why should a corporate entity like MPAA be able to dictate how you treat your customers? It just doesn’t make sense.

In rejecting the MPAA’s demands, ISP members of IKT Norway have shown themselves to be respectful of the relevant privacy and personal information laws in place. In a press release, Hallstein Bjercke of IKT Norway urges ISPs not to answer to MPAAs letters, but to contact IKT instead, calling the request to disconnect subscribers a “preposterous demand”. Bjercke also likens such measures to “getting the mailman to control the contents of every letter and package he delivers”. In fact, so incensed is IKT Norway about the demand that it has begun looking into the very legality of the private investigation (by law firm Simonsen Advokatfirma on behalf of MPAA) itself, and the legality of connecting personal information to the customers of Norwegian ISPs.

It’s really quite refreshing to see ISPs take such an enlightened view of alleged copyright infringement here, rather than rolling over on demand. In fact, a new Bill proposed by Guy Bono, French socialist and member of the European Parliament, was recently voted in by the EU Parliament (ArsTechnica Report). The Bill urges participating countries to “avoid adopting measures conflicting with civil liberties and human rights … such as the interruption of internet access“, claiming that doing so might lead to “profound repurcussions in a society where access to the internet is a mandatory law for social inclusion“.

Point 9 of the Draft Report also states that it:

Urges the Commission to rethink the critical issue of intellectual property from the cultural and economic point of view and to invite all those active in the sector to join forces and seek solutions equitable to all, in the interest of a balance between the opportunities for access to cultural events and content and intellectual property; draws Member States’ attention on this point to the fact that criminalising consumers so as to combat digital piracy is not the right solution

So yes, more enlightened measures please. Shutting off someone’s internet access for illegal downloading is like shutting off his tap water to punish him for making illegal homebrew. Unfortunately, the French Government has already signed such a pact with French ISPs and content owners in November last year.

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For more enlightened points of view, check out The Swedish Model’s statement on the new paradigm in music sharing.

The Swedish Model is an organisation comprising seven independent Swedish music labels. They release songs by various artists on their front page, with a focus on using the internet as a form of promotion, sharing and discussion.