After a month-long deliberation, the Stockholm District Court finally handed down its ruling that Bredbandsbolaget, a Swedish Internet Service Provider, cannot be forced by copyright holders to block The Pirate Bay, an infamous BitTorrent portal, and Swefilmer, a streaming website.
According to the resolution, services provided by Bredbandsbolaget’s operations cannot be considered as participation in the offenses done by some of its subscribers pertaining to copyright infringement when they access TPB and Swefilmer.
The court’s ruling denies the demands by copyright holders, which include that unless the ISP blocks subscriber access to TPB and Swefilmer, it should be held liable for the copyright infringements committed by its clientele.
“A unanimous District Court considers, therefore, that it is not in a position to authorize such a ban as the rights holders want and therefore rejects their request,” Torrentfreak quotes presiding Chief Magistrate Anders Dereborg, who also ruled that the plaintiffs need to pay for the defendant’s expenses. The amount is expected to exceed $160,000.
TPB is blocked by a lot of ISPs in Europe. The lawsuit, which the Swedish and Nordisk film industries, Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner music filed, would have been a huge blow to the BitTorrent portal that originates from the country.
The case was submitted before the court after Bredbandsbolaget refused the plaintiffs’ assertions and maintained that its sole responsibility is providing subscribers the Internet connectivity they paid for while facilitating easy access to online content.
The trial, which started last month, is in accordance with the EU directive that obliges each member state to ensure that copyright holders can pursue an injunction against intermediaries, which have their services used by a third party that violates copyright laws.
[“source-techtimes”]