Norwegian ISP doesn't have to block Pirate Bay, says court

Norwegian ISP Telenor doesn't have to block access to file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, according to a ruling from the district court for Asker and Bærum on Friday.

The entertainment industry has been trying to get Telenor to block The Pirate Bay since February, when it sent a warning letter to the operator. But Telenor has maintained that there is no legal basis for any ISP to act in the interests of digital intellectual-property rights holders by blocking individual Web sites, and now the district court has sided with that notion.

It's not reasonable to saddle ISPs with a censorship role on the Internet, Telenor said in a statement. Also, blocking sites doesn't solve the problem of illegal file sharing -- it just moves the problem elsewhere, a Telenor spokesman said in June.

The only way for copyright holders to make money is to offer services that make Web sites like The Pirate Bay less attractive, according to Telenor.

Attempts to get operators to block access to file-sharing sites have met with mixed results for the entertainment industry. Pirate Bay remains blocked by some operators in Denmark. Currently, the case is waiting to be heard in the Danish high court. In Italy efforts to block Pirate Bay are ongoing.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.