Internet provider Telia must block The Pirate Bay, a local court has decided on appeal. The order, which was requested by copyright holders including several prominent Hollywood studios, also requires the ISP to prevent customers from accessing Dreamfilm, FMovies, and NyaFilmer. It's not clear whether Telia plans any further appeals.
The Pirate Bay is blocked by ISPs in dozens of countries around the world, including its birth ground Sweden.
The first Swedish blockade was issued against local Internet provider Bredbandsbolaget more than three years ago.
Building on this victory, copyright holders then obtained an interim order against Telia, Sweden’s largest ISP.
After an initial protest, the case was sent back to the lower court which issued another block late last year.
This came in the form of a ‘dynamic’ order, which allows the blocklist to be updated regularly.
Telia appealed the decision but this week the blockade was upheld by the Swedish Patent and Market Court. According to the ruling, Telia facilitated copyright infringement by allowing customers to access several pirate sites.
Hollywood Scores Another Site Blocking Victory
The order follows a complaint from several Hollywood studios, including Disney Enterprises, Universal Studios, Warner Bros. Entertainment. In addition to The Pirate Bay, they also listed Dreamfilm, FMovies, and NyaFilmer as targets. These sites now have to be blocked.
In the appeal, the ISP argued that website blockades are easy to circumvent and therefore ineffective. People would only have to update their DNS to an external provider such as Google or OpenDNS to regain access. In addition, there would be a risk of overblocking.
The Court, however, determined that blocking efforts are effective enough to deter some people. The risk over overblocking is also seen as minimal. In the end, the interests of the rightsholders weighed stronger than potential concerns for the public at large.
“In view of the above considerations, the Court finds that blocking in accordance with the judgment is proportionate in a balance against all opposing parties’ interests,” the Court ultimately concludes.
Mirrors and Proxies are Covered
As highlighted by IPKAT, the injunction will also apply to mirror and proxy sites, irrespective of whether they are operated by the same people. General-purpose search engines such as Google and Yahoo are excluded, however.
The Court further clarified that Telia doesn’t have to actively search for new domains under which these sites are made accessible. This will be up to the rightsholders, after which the ISP has two to three weeks to update its blocklist.
The current blocking order will remain in place for three years and Telia is required to pay the movie companies’ legal costs. The Internet provider also risks an additional fine of half a million Swedish kroner ($54,000) if it fails to properly block the pirate sites in question.
A copy of the Patent and Market Court’s Appeal decision is available here (pdf)
