14 DAY TRIAL // A few days ago, Simonsen Advokatfirma, a law firm asked the Norwegian ISPs to ban the local file-sharing users, as a move to fight against piracy and illegal software distribution. The request sounded unacceptable but, in the letter they had sent to the ISPs, the lawyers explained that the providers have the obligation to help authorities fight against illegal activity. Well, the Norwegian ISP association, namely IKT Norway, today replied to the letter, saying that file-sharing will remain active as long as the law allows it. Although it was more like a "go away!" here are some fragments of the reply letter, as they were published by TorrentFreak.
"In your letter you claim that the ISPs have an obligation to prevent alleged illegal activity. It's further suggested that this should be carried out by the ISP by matching IP addresses with customer names and thereafter forward provided letters to the subscribers which (apparently) used the listed, dynamic IP addresses.
In a constitutional state, the police and the prosecuting authority have the job of investigating and indicting, not lawyers and communication engineers. Most of the big ISPs in Norway are members of IKT Norway and we will support the various ISPs as best we can against what we see as a preposterous demand from Simonsen.
IKT-Norway stresses that it's important to protect intellectual property. Without a strong governance of intellectual property rights, the incentive to invent and create may suffer. We do not protect nor sympathize with breaches of intellectual property rights, or other actions which breach the law."
The answer was to be expected because such a request is beside all, unacceptable. Lots of users connect to the web especially for sharing files with other consumers, but this doesn't necessarily mean that they're doing an illegal activity or they enhance the distribution of illegal material. And no, ISPs cannot afford to ban file sharing because this would mean ruining their own business.