In what has become a war of attrition, Piratebay has blocked
subscribers to ISP Perspektiv because Perspektiv blocked users'
access to Allofmp3.com. The intention is likely to be to encourage
Perspektiv users to leave the company by blocking access to the
enormously popular Piratebay.
"After careful consideration we have, for the first time ever,
decided to block an ISP because of their management," said a
statement from Piratebay in an informal translation posted online
by a third party.
Allofmp3.com is controversial because the US and European record
label industry groups say it is illegal but the company says the
music download site complies with Russian copyright law. It pays
into a collecting society but that society is reported not to have
made payments to artists.
The US music industry and government have both lobbied the
Russian government hard to have copyright law changed and to
encourage the government to clamp down on Allofmp3.com.
It is that kind of lobbying which Piratebay seems to suspect is
at play in Perspektiv. The group's statement said that it believed
that Perspektiv had put the interests of powerful media companies
above the interests of their subscribers.
File sharing is much more socially acceptable in Sweden than in
other European countries. Downloading music there was only recently
made illegal and a political group connected to Piratebay stood in
the last Swedish elections. Around 1.2 million Swedes, out of a
population of 9 million, told the census that they are involved in
file sharing.
"As one of the larges websites in Sweden we will not sit
silently and watch some of our basic rights be restricted," said
the Piratebay statement. "If we want a working and good society
even on the internet we must stand up for one another and show
courage when it is needed."
"Perspektiv Bredband has every right in the world to block
whichever site they want on their own net," it said. "And their
customers have every right in the world to change to a new ISP
which does not take upon itself the task of ensuring collective
conscience."
