Denmark Tells ISP It Must Block Allofmp3.com

from the good-luck-there dept

Thu, Oct 26th 2006 5:27pm — Mike Masnick

The entertainment industry is famous for overhyping each minor victory in their "war" on piracy, often claiming that something is a significant blow to those who engage in activities they don't like. Of course, in almost every instance, the "significant blow" turns out to be nothing of the sort. If anything, it tends to backfire more often than not, whether by giving free publicity to an obscure service or in driving file sharers to more underground sources. Yet, the big cartels in the industry never learn and can't wait to tout their "successes" in the media. The latest is that the IFPI has successfully convinced a Danish court that Allofmp3 is a bad, bad thing and needs to be banned. In order to ban it, the court has ruled that ISP Tele2 must block access to the site -- which is easier said than done in an age of encryption, VPNs and proxy servers. However, that doesn't stop the IFPI from claiming this is a much bigger deal than it is: "This decision eliminates any doubt that people may have about the illegality of allofmp3.com." No, sorry. All it does is make it clear that Allofmp3 is illegal in Denmark -- but says nothing of its legality in Russia. Plus, this is only a first ruling. Tele2 has already said it plans to appeal the case -- and while that appeal is pending, plenty of folks in Denmark have now been alerted to the presence of Allofmp3. Update: Excellent comment (from someone in Denmark) that notes that this "victory" is even less of a victory than the IFPI touts, as it only seems to cover a single ISP and leaves the others open. It's not clear, though, why it would only be against one ISP.

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27 Comments

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Daniel Bjorndahl, 26 Oct 2006 @ 6:10pm

Denmark tried...
...and brownie points to them for trying.

But I think more important than the publicity of Allofmp3 is the morality of those who now know of it.

"Each person must live their life as a model for others." - Rosa Parks

I believe the leaders of Denmark are sending a message more than a mandate.
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Michael Long, 26 Oct 2006 @ 6:25pm

Encryption
Encryption? How does that help when all of that encryption has to go to and from a specific IP address, which is probably what's going to be blocked.

Yes, somebody somewhere may setup a relay or proxy, but now that's another server you have to find, setup, and mess with. At what point does someone say, "screw it?" And go back to the CD store or iTunes?

Which is precisely the strategy they're employing. Make it inconvenient enough, and most people won't bother...
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2006 @ 6:26pm

Re: Denmark tried...
Sending a message saying what? That they are run by corporations?
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david b, 26 Oct 2006 @ 6:33pm

Re: Denmark tried...
what is that supposed to mean? because if you're insinuating that using allofmp3.com is somehow wrong, then you're just plain misled. if you've been reading this site at all, you should know that allofmp3.com is perfectly legal means of purchasing music.
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|3331373|3|_||3, 26 Oct 2006 @ 6:45pm

Good Luck
The Danes do not seem to have realised that there are proxy servers outside thier own country, so the ppl just have to use them - slows thge connection, but hey, it's cheap!
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Daniel Bjorndahl, 26 Oct 2006 @ 6:57pm

Re: Re: Denmark Tried...
Ah, perhaps I should have used clarity in my vagueness.

Denmark disapproves of Allofmp3 (which is illegal as stated by Mike) and in disapproving of this I would assume that they are hoping for the people Denmark to follow their example.

-
And David b- are you sure proper royalties are paid? I'm an artist myself (...just give me a few years of practice...), so this concerns me quite a bit.
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Avinash Vakil, 26 Oct 2006 @ 7:32pm

Linux?
Denmark!!! Think about the linux users, they cant buy "Legal" bug label music online!
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2006 @ 7:57pm

Re: Re: Re: Denmark Tried...
no.

Mike said allofmp3 is illegal in denmark. but its not in denmark. its in russia, and its legal in russia.

and if you are worried about making money off your music, you're not an artist, you're an entertainment professional.

As for proper royalties, yes they are paying in accordance with russian law. but the **aa wants more money than that which is legally required in russia, so they want to make it illegal.

Oh, and the riaa has returned the payment by allofmp3. so not only did they pay, but the money was returned.
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Daniel Bjorndahl, 26 Oct 2006 @ 8:08pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Denmark Tried...
True, entertainment professional would be the right title. It's the ethics of what they are doing that bothers me. Personally, I support Creative Commons

But no need for me to defend myself, and no need for me to be attacked either. That's me, and this article is about allofmp3 and Denmark.

The legality in Russia is completely irrelevant in Denmark. Denmark law is Denmark law. The people must follow Denmark law above any other nation's law.

For example, if in Canada it were legal to kill, would an American then be allowed to?
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Killer, 26 Oct 2006 @ 9:01pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Denmark Tried...
As long as that american killed a person currently living in canada through a proxy
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sambo, 26 Oct 2006 @ 9:07pm

On tryin to attack the ISP - Just a thought that hit me here about the entertainment industrys tactics & how there might be some other applications out there in the real world.

For a start let's make all gun manufacturers (& while we are at it, gun shops, dept stores that sell guns etc) liable for all & any crimes that are committed by people that use those arms!

And, while we are at it, lets make all those schools unfortunate enough to have a had some psycho start taking pot shots at students liable as well. After all, it's obvious to anybody (in the entertainment industry at least) that if the schools did not provide the location for the shooting obviously would not have happened.

I can't see that discussion going very far. What make the RIAA & other such bodies think that their argument is any different?
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Evan, 26 Oct 2006 @ 9:52pm

Well, beacuse Denamrk is such a huge country, I think this will be a major blow to allofmp3.com and will probably put an end to illegal music downloading as we know it. There's no way that allofmp3 will just find another ISP. Nice one RIAA!
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Luke, 26 Oct 2006 @ 10:47pm

Bell-Sympatico
hmmm...it looks like allofmp3.com doesn't work with bell-sympatico anymore.
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wizbongre, 27 Oct 2006 @ 12:23am

Comedy
Evan, you are a comedy genius - I salute you :)

Sambo has hit the nail on the head here...
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Michael...in Denmark, 27 Oct 2006 @ 1:52am

Tele2 not the only ISP in this country
As far as I see it this is a case of IFPI against one ISP, not the entire country, - it seems like that fact is being forgotten in some of the posts above...

Tele2 is certainly not the only ISP in this country.
...and it doesn't even have the biggest market share (far from).

So what's the point ?
Will IFPI go for the rest of the ISP's here in an attempt to block people in my country from accessing something ??
Will the next step be blocking sites that are against our commitment in Iraq ??

Might as well move to China or even the Middleeast...at least their internet is still controlled by government only, and not stupid organizations like IFPI.

//Michael

P.S. Just entered the AllOfMp3 site through my work's internet connection (Cybercity). It works as expected.
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Mike, 27 Oct 2006 @ 5:10am

Re: Encryption
STFU you don't know what your talking about.
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mixlplix, 27 Oct 2006 @ 5:14am

why do we create laws to protect peoples buisines models. companies go under all the time. what makes record companies so special?
dont give me that "protecting the artist" bullspit, cause we all know they do all they exploiting and make most of the money. artist dont even own there masters and certainly dont make money from cd sales. in fact, they have to repay the record companies for the recording, distribution, yada yada.
~with that said, artist can now record at home and distribute online. we dont need them, there lies, or there theft anymore.
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mixlplix, 27 Oct 2006 @ 5:17am

*their
sorry i've been up all night
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Chronno S. Trigger, 27 Oct 2006 @ 5:47am

Just because it hasn't been said yet
http://www.proxy4free.com/
Free proxies for anyone that has a ban threw there ISP.
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Sanguine Dream, 27 Oct 2006 @ 6:08am

Re:

I can't see that discussion going very far. What make the RIAA & other such bodies think that their argument is any different?

Simple. School districts lack the monetary fortitude to "encourage" law makers to protect thier interests.

I kinda quit listening to music about 3-4 years ago but I'm starting to get back into it. But this time I'm not wasting my time (and more importantly money) on these corporations that "representing starving artists."

A thought: If the artists are getting robbed by file sharers then why don't we see more artists complaining like Metallica was (up until recently)? We only see the RIAA filing suits. We only hear about the RIAA trying to shut down sites. We read about the RIAA dealing "major blows" to file sharing. I know if I were one of those "starving artists" that was getting robbed by file sharing I'd sure as hell be all over the place about it.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2006 @ 6:35am

Re:
> Well, beacuse Denamrk is such a huge country, I think this will be
> a major blow to allofmp3.com and will probably put an end to illegal
> music downloading as we know it. There's no way that allofmp3
> will just find another ISP. Nice one RIAA!

I'm going to assume for a moment that wasn't a joke. Illegal music downloading was around long before allofmp3 and will be around long after.
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Wizard Prang, 27 Oct 2006 @ 6:37am

Shooting the messenger
Whether AoMP3 is legal or not, I cannot help questioning the prosecution of an ISP. They are, after all, merely providing a service.

Making an ISP legally responsible for viruses, spam, pornography (though filtering could be a value-added service) etc. is a bit like making the Post Office legally responsible for mail fraud.

Go ahead. Shoot the messenger.
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Hamlet, 27 Oct 2006 @ 12:46pm

I can't believe it!
No one's said it yet but, um....

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
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Klaus from Denmark, 31 Oct 2006 @ 2:42am

It's not a decision or a verdict. It's just a preliminary injunction. We're still waiting for a trial.

Tele2 has not turned on any allofmp3-filter on yet, and will not do it until a proper trial has finished.

Tele2 is one of the smallest danish ISPs with a has a market share under 5%. IFPI do not like taking the big guys to court for fear of losing.

It's here in all it's glory in danish
http://www.dr.dk/NR/rdonlyres/EF2AAB7A-0E04-4963-963A-463CD7550D72/361965/tele2_ke.pdf

Al lofmp3 never got so much great exposure in Denmark. IFPI is really helping their business along.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Nov 2006 @ 5:40am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Denmark Tried...
your gay
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Dean, 15 Nov 2006 @ 6:09pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Denmark Tried...
Re: Re: Re: Denmark Tried... by Anonymous Coward on Oct 26th, 2006 @ 7:57pm said:

"Oh, and the riaa has returned the payment by allofmp3. so not only did they pay, but the money was returned."

Where was this information derived from? Do you have a source for this quote?
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verus125, 20 Jan 2010 @ 5:28pm

Free proxy
New list proxy
http://free1proxy.blogspot.com
http://proxy1gratuit.blogspot.com
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