Blog - /Quotes

The court in Kopenhagen (Fogderetten) has now delivered its verdict Oktober 25 2006.

This court verdict (21 pages PDF in Danish) is quite suprising, not that it forces Tele2 to block access to Allofmp3.com, but rather how the verdict does it. Among other things the court says (transladed to english below):

The court finds .... that also the temporary fixation of the work in the form of electronic impulses, that goes on in the routers while transmitting the data packets over the internet, is covered by the §2 in copyright law.

This means that the court ruling finds that Tele2 are unlawfully making copies while routing their customers communication. So they are not directly forced to block information from Allofmp3.com, they are found to be making "pirate copies" when doing their job of directing communication on the internet, that is what a router does, and internet cannot function without it. This basicly means that this court has forbidden the internet in Denmark. This goes also for modern mobile communication too, since a mobile phone also can be used to unlawfully communicate otherwise allredy published and not stamped with secrecy information. It is a lot like if the old telephone company had been held responsible for what its customers said on the phone. Tele2 has applied for retrial in higher court.

— Wikipedia [original quote], emphasis mine

[begin sarcasm]

Why yes, I suppose that effectively prohibiting the Internet would cause "music piracy" to stop. What a brilliant idea. Maybe next they'll ban computer use by all hospitals throughout the country because of one identity theft lawsuit.

[end sarcasm]