Pirate Bay warning: internet provider forced to hand over names

[Hydrogen]

A landmark ruling in Sweden has forced a popular ISP to hand over the names of those engaged in piracy

A landmark court ruling in Sweden could have dire consequences for those using torrent sites like the Pirate Bay to download pirate films and TV shows.

One of the country's main internet service providers (ISP) will soon be forced to hand over the names of customers using its services to download illegal material.

Bahnhof is a popular ISP in Sweden and is proud of its ability to keep its customer data private. But the Administrative Court in Stockholm has decided it must hand over all the personal details of those who infringe on copyright.

The court made a statement about the judgement on its website: “The administrative court in Stockholm has found that today the Swedish provisions on disclosure of subscription data to law enforcement agencies do not contravene EU law.

“The court therefore considers that the Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) has been prepared to instruct the operator Bahnhof to disclose subscription information in accordance with the provisions of the Electronic Communications Act."

Bahnhof responded to say that it will appeal the decision. But it could have ramifications to other ISPs beyond Sweden.

Here in the UK, ISPs have issued warnings to anyone using torrent sites like the Pirate Bay or KickassTorrents as part of the Get It Right campaign .

The new campaign is being run by the government, after it emerged that an estimated 6.7 million people consumed at least one item of illegal content in 2016.

Previous attempts to fight the flow of illegal content onto torrent sites has involved browsers blocking their IP addresses. However, thanks to tools like proxies and VPNs, they are often still accessible.

The reason torrent sites have continued to flourish is that they can also be used to share perfectly legal files. In a similar manner to Wikipedia, the content is completely user-generated.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/pirate-bay-warning-internet-provider-11953135

Not certain if this could have an effect on crypto denominated dark web markets. It could represent a step towards renewed crackdowns on file sharing. There may also be renewed interest in "internet kill switches" which may be a misdirection and misinformation campaign. The concept of an "internet kill switch" may revolve around a countries internet becoming centralized enough that it can be shutdown from a single source. Internet centralization makes it easier to implement things like state sureillance and internet content filtering. Its not simply a kill switch, its intended to push other political agendas.

Anyways, this case with ISPs handing over data could hint at renewed RIAA cases where the movie or music recording industries go after file downloaders in court and try to sue them for life ruining sums of money. I'm not 100% certain what the implications are but with net neutrality being gone and appeals being in jeopardy this may be the type of case which could benefit largely from having more exposure and more thought as to what the repurcussions may be.

[LeGaulois]

It will have no effect on crypto dark web markets. It's not the first country to do this. Mine is doing it for years with all ISP. It's not a "first catch first punishment" You need to go evil on it. In my country the first time you get a warning (you receive a letter) the second time you receive another letter, the third time they shut down your internet connection for 3 months, and maybe something like 150$ to pay. People who are fans of downloading copyrighted material are already using other methods since.

[LTU_btc]

It will have no effect on crypto dark web markets. It's not the first country to do this. Mine is doing it for years with all ISP. It's not a "first catch first punishment" You need to go evil on it. In my country the first time you get a warning (you receive a letter) the second time you receive another letter, the third time they shut down your internet connection for 3 months, and maybe something like 150$ to pay. People who are fans of downloading copyrighted material are already using other methods since.

Do you want to say that ISP are forced to track what their customers are downloading and later inform (and punish) if needed? If yes, I don't think that ISP are seriously interested to do that. People who are using torrents a lot is important customers of ISP because they are using expensive fast internet plans.
I heard plans to make something similar in my country, but all ISP are against that. So, now institutions now are trying to block illegal websites instead of punishing users. But it's not hard to bypass these blocks. It's just enough to change DNS settings orfind alternatice domain of website.

[pinkflower]

Heres a question on file sharing. If I convert a song from a CD and copy it to my friend's USB drive, will that be considered piracy? Why arent the companies concerned with it? Its technically the same as sharing a file on Bittorent.

[Lucius]

Heres a question on file sharing. If I convert a song from a CD and copy it to my friend's USB drive, will that be considered piracy? Why arent the companies concerned with it? Its technically the same as sharing a file on Bittorent.

I think this is not piracy in the manner mentioned here, you just share something with your friend with no intention to make any profit from that. But if you make that song available on the internet (torrent), you break the law on copyright and allow others to download that song for free, in other words
performer, publisher and all others in the chain who invest money, time and effort in that song lose profit.

Regarding Sweden, they are among rare countries in the world who have the time and resources to seriously address such problems. In the vast part of the world internet piracy is something quite normal, authorities not even consider to deny citizens that "pleasure".

[cryptaxo]

Heres a question on file sharing. If I convert a song from a CD and copy it to my friend's USB drive, will that be considered piracy? Why arent the companies concerned with it? Its technically the same as sharing a file on Bittorent.

thats also piracy, i know a person sued for photocopying from a book of the professor who was teaching in same university, he saw first person doing photocopying and he asked him that the book is copyrighted, they had argument and the professor went to court. this was in London.

[bob123]

Not certain if this could have an effect on crypto denominated dark web markets.

Most probably not.

Since thePirateBay is being accessed via the clear net, the ISP does know the metadata from your connections (When, which site, how long, how much you have downloaded, .. ).
This is not the case inside the TOR network. Inside the TOR network there are 3 types of nodes: entry nodes, relaying nodes and exist nodes.
Exit nodes do see all data in plain text (if no TLS or other form of encryption is being used). An ISP does not know who you are connecting to in this case.

This does not mean that the TOR network is fully anonymous. Especially if you don't take precautions.
But with a proper configuration and enough paranoia it is definitely possible to stay anonymous inside the TOR network.

[LeGaulois]

It will have no effect on crypto dark web markets. It's not the first country to do this. Mine is doing it for years with all ISP. It's not a "first catch first punishment" You need to go evil on it. In my country the first time you get a warning (you receive a letter) the second time you receive another letter, the third time they shut down your internet connection for 3 months, and maybe something like 150$ to pay. People who are fans of downloading copyrighted material are already using other methods since.

Do you want to say that ISP are forced to track what their customers are downloading and later inform (and punish) if needed? If yes, I don't think that ISP are seriously interested to do that. People who are using torrents a lot is important customers of ISP because they are using expensive fast internet plans.
I heard plans to make something similar in my country, but all ISP are against that. So, now institutions now are trying to block illegal websites instead of punishing users. But it's not hard to bypass these blocks. It's just enough to change DNS settings orfind alternatice domain of website.

Yes, I mean that. All ISP have to track the customers for a possible illegal download, (of course, it's automated there isn't someone 24/7 watching a screen) We're not punished from the ISP but by the government. The ISP snitch you to the govt. then the govt. send you a letter with what you downloaded illegally. (url, name file, date,...) As it is the law ISP have no choice to do it. Here all the internet connection are the same and there is no data cap here, everything is illimited

[Potato Chips]

Heres a question on file sharing. If I convert a song from a CD and copy it to my friend's USB drive, will that be considered piracy? Why arent the companies concerned with it? Its technically the same as sharing a file on Bittorent.

thats also piracy, i know a person sued for photocopying from a book of the professor who was teaching in same university, he saw first person doing photocopying and he asked him that the book is copyrighted, they had argument and the professor went to court. this was in London.

Aye, Piracy involves unauthorized distribution/copying of anything that is copyrighted. By definition, it is piracy.

While it's true that both methods are just "sharing", the results are different depending on which platform is used. If you upload it in any torrent sites, literally everyone can access it and get them for free, some popular torrent sites even get insane massive traffics. On the other hand, the number of people that could get their hands on the files in a flash drive is significantly lower.

Surely they are concerned but please do note that:
- Someone has to tip the authorities if person A copied something illegally. Let's take your example: If you copied and distribute something that is copyrighted, what is the probability of someone informing the authorities about it? Pretty low right?
- They are more focused in a method where they can halt the most number of users--exactly torrents

[o_e_l_e_o]

Given everything that has come out during the last few years about the NSA, government spying, snooping, tracking, etc., it still surprises me that people will do something blatantly illegal like pirating without even attempting to cover their tracks. At the bare minimum, setting up a VPN is now trivially easy.

[RamonBTC]

Piracy is a crime in our national law, but it isn’t logical that the one who access the site will be the one to be punished. Why won’t they do directly to the site itself.

I think it is a fishing frenzy and in reality authorities need an Angus beef for dinner. Meaning they wanted money as this legal battle might be sponsored by some.

Like I said, “wrong is wrong and illegal is illegal”. So I support it legally, but hoping it won’t be abused.

[buwaytress]

In my jurisdiction, it has been almost the same case, whereby individuals would not be punished but the provider of the access (the ISP) would have been the one. It is technically individually illegal to download pirated content, but the ISPs here took the stand last year to de-risk and simply block access to these sites.

I'm actually really taken aback by this decision, and in Sweden of all places. I wonder what's next. Exchanges forced to hand over the IPs of anonymous, unregistered, unverified users?

[o_e_l_e_o]

-snip-

You are kidding yourself if you think your ISP isn't already handing over your IP and browsing habits to the government. I'd recommend having a look at privacytools.io and start taking steps to protect yourself online.

[1Referee]

You are kidding yourself if you think your ISP isn't already handing over your IP and browsing habits to the government.

Correct. With everything that we do, even if the ISP isn't actually handing over data to the government, we have to assume that our data is compromised by more than just one party.

I'm glad I stopped using that sort of sites years ago. I either use free software or pay for that what I find useful and isn't too stressing on the system. In the same way that goes up for content that I consume; everything gets paid for if I think it's worth it, or else I just skip. There is no need to download stuff in today's world. Everything has become far cheaper and isn't worth the potential hassle and risks of downloading stuff.

Decentralized cloud and file sharing is the future, and these actions will make sure we reach it sooner.

[kevoh]

Heres a question on file sharing. If I convert a song from a CD and copy it to my friend's USB drive, will that be considered piracy? Why arent the companies concerned with it? Its technically the same as sharing a file on Bittorent.

Technically, you can do whatever you like with the CD. Rip it, Burn it, do a listening party with friends e.t.c but the moment you make copies and give to families and friends it then becomes piracy.

Why arent the companies concerned with it? Its technically the same as sharing a file on Bittorent.

Unlike P2P file sharing sites that can leave a lot of indices for any party to use to trace you since it is done online, file sharing with friends are mostly online and often involves physical materials.

[Indamuck]

I still remember the glorious days of napster and when Lars Ulrich went bananas trying to stop it.  I fear in the future that we will eventually have a one world government.  there will be no where left to go with any freedom.

I do feel bad for the small musicians that get ripped off with illegal downloads.  But for the movie industry its a different story.  Most of the people that pirate those movies never would of bought a ticket in the first place so it's not like they are losing money.

[Pearls Before Swine]

thats also piracy, i know a person sued for photocopying from a book of the professor who was teaching in same university, he saw first person doing photocopying and he asked him that the book is copyrighted, they had argument and the professor went to court. this was in London.

That's pretty extreme but not shocking.  I have had professors forbid textbook copying before, and it's truly a pain in the ass since most textbooks are well over $100 new and even used ones are expensive.  What a racket that is.  On the other hand, I didn't create the textbook and it's the author's right to make money from it and to forbid anyone from using it for free or from distributing it.

There's a lot of copyrighted music and videos on sites like youtube, and that surprises me.  I'm not sure how so many individuals (and youtube itself) get away with that.  I've seen lots of videos taken down, but there are always a lot available to watch for free.  There are also youtube downloader programs that don't seem to be getting chased away by the music or film industry.  It's very inconsistent.

[buwaytress]

-snip-

You are kidding yourself if you think your ISP isn't already handing over your IP and browsing habits to the government. I'd recommend having a look at privacytools.io and start taking steps to protect yourself online.

You're kidding yourself if you think that sort of thing happens for clandestine reasons and that privacytools.io is going to be enough to prevent that

You're also wrong in your assumptions on what I think. Of course we should all operate on paranoia and assume the worst of the government. Is our use of Bitcoin not proof that we mistrust the state? My surprise was not on the thought of it happening, but on the public facing of it. My surprise is that an ISP was actually taken to court because it wouldn't hand over these data.

[cryptaxo]

how long ISPs generally retain our information? what information is generally retained? only addresses or the data also. like emails etc. isnt HTTPS safe from ISP?

[ivankoh]

Given everything that has come out during the last few years about the NSA, government spying, snooping, tracking, etc., it still surprises me that people will do something blatantly illegal like pirating without even attempting to cover their tracks. At the bare minimum, setting up a VPN is now trivially easy.

Security is extremely important to investors in the cryptocurrency market because it helps protect investors' assets. The use of VPN in the digital age as the internet today is very easy but choose the reputable provider to not steal your information.