James Delahunty
14 Mar 2010 20:21
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and performing rights group TONO have given up efforts to legally force Norwegian ISP Telenor to block the Pirate Bay BitTorrent website. The case had seen Telenor triumphant twice after it refused to block the Pirate Bay and the IFPI brought the case to court.
In November 2009, a court decided that Telenor had no obligation to comply with the IFPI's demands. TONO confirmed that the verdict would be appealed, but in February the Borgarting Court of Appeal rejected the appeal on the grounds that there was no basis in Norwegian law for the claim.
The next option for the IFPI and TONO was to go to the Supreme Court, and most thought it would happen. However, the IFPI and TONO have decided not to take that route. "We wanted to get a legal clarification on whether under Norwegian law it is possible to order ISPs to block access to The Pirate Bay," a TONO statement reads.
"Now we have two clear decisions that there is no legal authority under Norwegian law for such blocking requirements." Instead, the focus is not on Norwegian law. TONO maintains that Norway may not have adequately implemented the EU Copyright Directive and called for "clearer legislation".