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Archive for the ‘Denmark’ Category

Post from: TorrentFreak

Danish ISPs Reject Anti-Piracy Proposals: “

Danish ISPs have rejected proposals from the IFPI for a ‘3-strikes and you’re out’ policy to deal with illicit file-sharers. In a joint statement, the telecoms companies said that they would not be a part of ‘detection and monitoring’ activities and that the solution to piracy should come from elsewhere.

Efforts to reach a voluntary agreement between the IFPI and ISPs in Denmark on the issue of unauthorized file-sharing have failed. The telecoms companies have completely rejected the demands of the music industry.

The IFPI wanted to be able to hunt down file-sharers, report them to their ISP and have them implement a so-called ‘3 strikes’ policy. They proposed that the first time someone got caught sharing copyrighted files, they would receive a warning from the ISP, the second time they would have their Internet connection slowed down. After a third warning, or strike, the user would be disconnected from his ISP and banished from the Internet.

ISPs in the UK recently reached an agreement with the IFPI to send out warnings to alleged file-sharers, but rejected any further sanctions against their customers such as speed capping or disconnection. However, according to a Comon report, the Danish ISPs have rejected the proposals completely. They say they will not take part in ‘detection and monitoring activities’ and believe that the proposals would constitute a contravention of the law, and would upset the balance between the interests of the individual and economic interests.

‘The Internet must be protected as a credible media, where each citizen can feel comfortable with the certainty that he will be on an equal footing with other media, such as confidentiality of correspondence in the mail, etc,’ said the statement. ‘The proposals that have been seen by others in the European debate, which have also been raised in Denmark – for example, to disconnect users or deny users Internet access – will counteract this objective, and is in no way proportionate to the situation.’

President of the Telecommunications Industry Association Jens Ottosen says the plan presented by the IFPI to the Ministry of Culture has a number of serious weaknesses. He believes that the rights holders cannot accurately identify people who are engaged in unauthorized file-sharing. Among other things, the IFPI model of warning/slowing/disconnecting an IP address, NOT a person, means that even if the owner of an Internet connection did nothing wrong, they would be the one who got punished. Those who are the victim of a wireless hacking are equally vulnerable, something which the ISPs aren’t prepared to accept, and neither are the courts.

‘We are very divided,’ said Ottosen. When asked if there is a chance of reaching any type of voluntary agreement with the music industry, he added, ‘I can’t imagine.’

Thanks to Peter_Pan

(Via TorrentFreak.)

Danish filter catches Romanian child-porn sites: U.S. is third in a competition no country wants to win, By Kristian Hansen

June 12, 2008 With 86 sites, Romania is the country with the most domains caught in a Danish child-pornography filter.

However, the generic domains .com, .info, .biz and .net totaled 3,240 out of 3,864 domains caught by the filter in early 2008.

Computerworld Demark is in possession of the database of domains in the filter. The database is maintained by the Danish police, but it is enforced by 19 Danish Internet service providers on a voluntary basis.

Other countries listed in the database are the U.S. with 43 domains, Russia with 40 and the otherwise very controlled China with 23 domains. Remarkably, the small nation of Tonga has 85 domains on the list. In Europe, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, Austria and Slovakia each have three or more domains in the filter.

Ulf Munkedal, CEO of Danish security company FortConsult AS, explained that the list probably is a reflection of where pedophiles can easily acquire domains without being traced.

‘Some countries barely require a Hotmail address or the like to buy a domain,’ he said.

Safety on different servers can also play a role.

‘Sometimes they can take over a server and a domain,’ he said. However, Munkedal said he believes that the particularly large number of domains from Romania may indicate that the authorities in that country may not always react too quickly to tips on child pornography. He also expressed surprise that so many Chinese domains are being blocked by the filter.

Danish domains investigated

For technical reasons, Denmark also has a domain in the database, www.stop.politi.dk. However, it is a subdomain of the Danish police force domain, politi.dk.

Danish domains will not be caught in the filter because that would make the owners aware that an investigation is under way, said the Danish police’s IT crime investigation unit.

In 2006, however, the Web site Bizar.dk was caught in the filter, but that was an error. The case ended with the police giving the owner of the site an apology.

Foreign authorities are informed

Soren Thomassen, head of the Danish police’s IT crime-investigation unit, would not comment on specific investigations, but he explained the principle that when Web sites from abroad land in the filter, the police in that country are directly informed.

‘It is standard procedure,’ he said.

Danish police, however, do not follow up on what action is taken by officials abroad in response to the Danish alerts.

While generic domains are not connected to particular countries, the locations of the people behind the sites can often be determined by tracking down payment information, which reveals the location, Thomassen said.

He would not comment on whether the various sites in different countries are parts of larger networks, but he noted that the sites sometimes link to one another and in that sense are certainly connected.

This is the list of countries with domains that have been caught in the Danish child-porn filter.

– Computerworld Danmark