--- Date: wed, 12 jun 2002 01:41:21 +0200 To: declanat_private From: mikael pawlo <mikaelat_private> Subject: newsgroups shut down in norway Declan, Here are some news on a recent court ruling on newsgroup liability in Norway that might interest you and other Politech readers. Digi.no reports that the district court of Oslo, Norway has ruled that the Scandinavian Internet Service Provider and telecom company Tele2 is liable for distributing pictures containing child pornography, violent pornography and forced pornography (all banned in Norway) in its newsgroups. Tele2 was fined to pay NOK 500,000, which is a substantial fine in Scandinavian courts (around USD 64,000). As a consequence of the verdict, Telenor, the main competitor of Tele2, immediately shut downall newsgroups that may contain pictures. The Norweigan authority Okokrim, which is a law enforcement agency for white collar crimes, is reported to look upon the Telenor reaction as an over-reaction. However, Okokrim consider the ruling against Tele2 just. The Norweigan Tele2 CEO Markus Takte regards the ruling as absurd and will appeal. Takte states that one can not force the distributor to carry the responsibilites of a publisher. The ruling has also caused quite a stir in Sweden, while Tele2 is a Swedish company. I think that the ruling - if not changed upon appeal - may eventually create a situation where the ISP:s are forced to lessen interactivity in the networks and apply a cable operator business model to their systems, not much unlike AOL. Hence, the Internet would run a risk of beeing split up into small islands with decreased interactivity between the networks. The latter effect is commonly referred to as 'splinternet'. Related links: Report the case by Digi.no (in Norweigan): http://www.digi.no/dtno.nsf/pub/md20020606150502_kvi_79098191 Tele2: http://www.tele2.se/ Currency Converter: http://www.xe.net/ucc/ Telenor: http://www.telenor.no/ Digi.no on the Telenor shutdown (still Norweigan): http://www.digi.no/dtno.nsf/pub/md20020606164817_kvi_61940032 Okokrim web site: http://www.okokrim.no/ Digi.no on Okokrim's reaction to the shutdown (Norweigan): http://www.digi.no/dtno.nsf/pub/md20020606174835_okv_85883726 Splinternet theory: http://www.law.usm.maine.edu/mlta/works/01/splinter.htm Regards Mikael Pawlo _________________________________________________________________________ ICQ:35638414 mailto:mikaelat_private +46-704-215825 http://www.pawlo.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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