Andre Yoskowitz
18 Apr 2009 17:51
The Swedish ISP Bahnhof is destroying any and all details of its customers in an open protest to Sweden's controversial IPRED anti-piracy laws.
CEO Jon Karlung, a long time opponent of the laws that went into effect on April 1st, has said the company is making it top priority to protect their clients.
The Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) laws make it much easier for content rights holders to get the personal details of alleged unauthorized file sharers. The laws say the ISPs can retain the IP addresses of file sharers or they are free to destroy the info.
"It's about the freedom to choose, and the law makes it possible to retain details. We're not acting in breach of IPRED; we're following the law and choosing to destroy the details," Karlung added.
Bahnhof also added that his actions make the law completely ineffective and if all other Swedish ISPs followed, then the law would no longer have any effect.
"Yes, that would make the new law completely ineffective. And then the legislators will have to step up and say they want to have data storage, not to catch terrorists but to help record companies and the movie industry in the hunt for file sharers," he concluded.
Swedish officials are currently working on a work around for the law's loophole, which would force ISPs to keep all electronic data for a minimum of six months.