The rights holders are appealing the decision from Asker and Bærum District Court, where the court concluded that Telenor did not have to block access to The Pirate Bay for its customers.
/ 08/12/2009 / codexPress release: December 8, 2009
– We believe the ruling is wrong, and are therefore appealing the decision to the Court of Appeal, says Cato Strøm in TONO. If it is the case that the Norwegian authorities have not implemented the EU Copyright Directive correctly, as the District Court claims, this is serious. For us, this is a matter of principle that it is important to have clarified legally in a higher instance.
IFPI's Marte Thorsby believes that Telenor's involvement in making Pirate Bay available to its subscribers is unlawful:
– The district court is crystal clear that Telenor is physically involved in making The Pirate Bay available to its customers. We believe, unlike the district court, that this involvement is contrary to Norwegian law. We see that ISPs in several European countries are being held liable for providing access to illegal services, and believe that this is also the legal situation in Norway.
TONO, IFPI, Norwegian Videogram Association, SF Norge, MPAA and GramArt, along with a number of other film and music companies, have joined forces to demand that Telenor stop its customers' access to The Pirate Bay.
In June, a joint film and music industry petitioned for a temporary injunction against Telenor, demanding that Telenor block access to The Pirate Bay for its internet customers. The case was pending in Asker and Bærum District Court in week 42.
The Pirate Bay is a download website that illegally makes copyrighted material widely available, including music, movies, and TV shows.
Cato Strøm, Director TONOMobile: 92 21 63 19Email: cato.strom@tono.no
Marte Thorsby, director IFPI NorgeMobil: 99 60 29 59
Jan Richard Kjelstrup, Communications Manager at TONOMobile: 99 24 86 87Email: jrk@tono.no