Music Companies To Block Pirates

Apparently giving up on the idea that the Swedish courts will eventually put a stop to The Pirate Bay, Finnish music companies are taking the matter into their own hands.

The national branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has filed a petition with the Helsinki District Court asking that Internet service provider Elisa prevent customers from being able to access the Swedish BitTorrent tracker site.

Pirate Bay’s co-founders were convicted of copyright infringement in April 2009, a verdict reaffirmed by the Svea Court of Appeal in November, but the site is still up and running.

“In three days alone we found 1,100 file-sharers who were offering illegal content via Pirate Bay in Finland,” said IFPI Finland spokesperson Lauri Rechardt. “We are worried about this phenomenon.”

He said the development of a legal online market in Finland is impossible if illegal services like The Pirate Bay are allowed to continue operating.

IFPI Finland singled out Elisa because it claims its customers were responsible for 35 percent of the illegal downloads it monitored.