Norwegians Forced to Choose Between Stopping Sharing Files and Getting Sued

File sharing is once again causing important disputes around the world as Simonsen, a Norwegian law firm, wants to reduce the amount of copyrighted material circulating on the web by asking users to stop sharing files that may infringe copyrights, bit-tech.net informs. According to the report, Advokatfirma DA started sending letters to the country's ISP in order to redirect them to their consumers who were identified as sharing copyrighted content over the web. Moreover, the law firm has created a full list of IPs, apparently belonging to users who are suspected of infringing copyrights.

The content of the letters asks Internet users to abandon file sharing and requires them to sign a paper and send it back as a way of showing their approval. In case a user who signed the letter infringes the rule once again, he may be the subject of legal disputes filed by the law firm.

However, the Norwegian Consumer Council does not agree with Simonsen's action and advises both ISPs and users to ignore the letters and refuse signing them. According to the mentioned source, signing the paper is almost an "act of lunacy" because the download of copyrighted content may occur even without your fault.

And this is 100 percent true, just think somebody inside the house downloads some sort of copyright infringing file. It's not just like "Hey, you signed the paper, it's your IP, it's your Internet connection, you must go to prison, I'm sorry!" And, even worse, imagine that somebody hacks your computer and uses your connection to download illegal material. What happens then? Should you go to prison just because your firewall didn't block the assault as it was supposed to? Well, I don't think so. In case you receive one of these letters, just think twice before signing.