bahnhof ISP Deletes IP-address Logs to Fend Off Piracy “Extortion Letters”

[vissha]

ISP Deletes IP-address Logs to Fend Off Piracy “Extortion Letters”

 

 

Swedish Internet service provider Bahnhof continues to fight against copyright holders that target alleged file-sharers. The company explains that it has setup its logging policies in such as way that it can refuse requests for IP-address information from so-called copyright trolls, suggesting that other ISPs should follow suit.

 

 

In recent years file-sharers around the world have been threatened with lawsuits, if they don’t pay a significant settlement fee.

 

These so-called “copyright trolling” efforts have been a common occurrence in countries such as Germany and the United States, and last week they started in Sweden as well.

 

Rightsholders are targeting thousands of alleged pirates. First, they ask the court for a subpoena to expose the personal details of account holders connected to certain IP-addresses, which they then present to the associated ISPs.

 

Some Internet providers have been cooperating with these requests, but not all. Most notably, the privacy-oriented ISP Bahnhof is doing everything in its power to prevent its customers from being exposed.

 

This week the ISP explained how its logging policies are tailored to only allow only requests that are made in criminal cases, not civil claims against BitTorrent users or other alleged file-sharers.

 

In Sweden, ISPs are required to keep IP-address logs for six months under the Electronic Communications Act (LEK). This legislation allows the authorities to demand this type of data in criminal cases, such as those involving murder and terrorism.

 

To comply with this requirement, Bahnhof has setup a database of logs which are stored for the minimal required period and can be accessed for these cases only. The regular logs are purged immediately.

 

Bahnhof, illustrating its logging policy

 

When copyright holders request IP-address details, which they do under the contested IPRED legislation, the ISP simply has nothing to hand over. This is very similar to the non-logging policies of many VPN services.

 

“We store logs for six months to fight crime, absolutely. But we save everything in a separate system, which is only used for LEK,” Bahnhof CEO Jon Karlung says.

 

“My impression is that some other operators have their clients’ IP addresses stored in several different places. They then also become more vulnerable to having to disclose data IPRED rules.”

 

Bahnhof itself has operated like this for years, but now that mass file-sharing cases have landed in Sweden the value of this policy is becoming apparent.

 

Rightly so, according to the ISP, which says it has found a good way to fend off copyright trolls.

 

“If all operators stored data the way we do, we would avoid the extortion letters altogether. Because we have the motto ‘Internet privacy’ we are very careful with personal data,” Karlung says.

 

Bahnhof’s CEO adds that other companies should think more carefully about where data is stored. The more databases there are, the more likely it is that they can be compelled to share subscriber data.

 

“The more different databases there are, the greater the risk that privacy is compromised,” Karlung adds.

 

Rick Falkvinge, founder of the Swedish Pirate Party, applauds Bahnhof’s logging policy. He discussed the issue in a recent article and informs TorrentFreak that data retention laws which are supposed to help catch terrorists shouldn’t be used against file-sharers.

 

“The damage these copyright trolls are doing to society is immeasurable. They were able to get shameless mail-order legislation justified by the war on terror, and are now turning those anti-terrorism laws against defenseless single mothers in order to protect a crumbling entertainment monopoly.

 

“There is absolutely no reason to tolerate, nor to forgive, this kind of behavior,” he adds

 

It will be interesting to see whether any of the ISPs currently handing over personal detailed connected to IP-addresses will follow suit and change their policies in the future.

 

Source

[niTe_RiDeR_Pr0]

I Wish these f***ing ret***ed copyright holders could just stop bothering our internet & piss off & stop shutting down the best torrent sites in the world like KAT. I wish badly that KAT, which was the world's best torrent site, would emerge back in all its glory (with login & uploading support) just like TPB did, with much better security & no loopholes. KAT even used to take copyright issues seriously & used to take down many torrents (for e.g. I had uploaded a "Windows XP MSDN untouched edition with SP3" iso which got hundreds of seeders in a week, & >5000 downloads in a month, but after 3 months got removed due to a copyright issue, & the torrent page shows "Torrent removed due to Copyright issues & not available to download."). There were many more torrents like that & some movie torrents too. But when hundreds of torrents get uploaded for famous movies such as "X-Men" & software such as "Photoshop", it goes out of control. The copyright holders can't point out each & every torrent that pops up on torrent sites every minute (for example, there was a movie in India named "Udta Punjab", which got leaked weeks before the movie was released, & eventually led to more & more copies being uploaded on torrent sites & mostly on KAT). So for this reason these a-holes took down KAT & now even the most popular Torrent search engine, Torrentz. (sob sob sob sob sob angry angry angry angry veryangry) But there was no need at alll to arrest the founder of the site, Artem Vaulin. I salute him. These mo***rf****rs arrested him as if he uploaded all the illegal torrents. He must be released from jail. Oh God!

[straycat19]

39 minutes ago, niTe_RiDeR_Pr0 said:

I Wish these f***ing ret***ed copyright holders could just stop bothering our internet & piss off & stop shutting down the best torrent sites in the world like KAT

 

Trust me, that is never going to happen.  If anything, shutting down KAT just reinforces what the authorities are doing, since it has been successful.  On the other hand you have to realize that stealing is stealing, whether it is a movie, a song, your car, or an item from a store shelf.  Any thief will be sought by authorities, the bigger the theft, the larger the manhunt.  When it comes to movies and songs we are talking about billions of dollars, not only from the movie companies but from the actors, singers, writers, and others who receive payment thru profit sharing from sales.  Good thing we don't have the same mindset as the 1800s or they would just hire people like me to hunt you down and shoot you since dead men can no longer break the law.  So just accept that if you use torrents there is someone in the world watching and when they get enough 'ammo' for their 'gun' the paper 'bullets' will start flying.  That's just the modern version of robbers and the posse.

[steven36]

In the 1800s there were no such thing as  computers and The earliest documented instances of piracy was 14th century BC.. Governments have been trying to stop it  for 3316 years  if it was not on the internet  it will still be on the streets  . In 1800s you had  outlaws like Jesse James who would shoot you back too . When the Allan Pinkerton's Detective Agency came after him they killed Jesse James mom and little brother,  killing  Innocent people  something really to be proud of   ..Then Jesse James  killed so many of the Pinkerton Agents they fled back up north and never came back again.Allan Pinkerton ran like a scared chicken   . They had no FBI  back then so every thing was carried out by PI, local law enforcement and locals residents and many died along the way  ,  You better put that Jack Daniels down pops, the reason people dont  do that no more is because we shoot back you come my house  and tell me what I can and cant do you better be prepared to fight  or to arrest me..

 

I'm no spring chicken and never been in no serious  trouble ever   You act like someone downloading a movie  they should be killed for downloading a movie when Cops are on the streets selling drugs and beating on people because there raciest .  You be in  one post telling someone   how to download movies and the next telling  they should be killed for it. You are a oxymoron and a half   A want be cop

 

[straycat19]

43 minutes ago, steven36 said:

I'm no spring chicken and never been in no serious  trouble ever   You act like someone downloading a movie  they should be killed for downloading a movie when Cops are on the streets selling drugs and beating on people because there raciest .  You be in  one post telling someone   how to download movies and the next telling  they should be killed for it. You are a oxymoron and a half   A want be cop

 

You must be old, your eyes and brain are not connecting.  I didn't say any of that, what I said was he should be glad we didn't have the same mindset as the 1800s and gave an example. I can tell you how to rob a bank too.  That is not illegal, but if you are stupid enough to do it that is on you.  I can tell you how to hack a government server.  Again, that's not illegal, but if you try it and get caught that is on you.  Information is free and legal while using that information may not necessarily be so.  I would never want to be a cop, they have to follow too many rules. I prefer not having any rules to follow, per se.

[steven36]

1 hour ago, straycat19 said:

 

You must be old, your eyes and brain are not connecting.  I didn't say any of that, what I said was he should be glad we didn't have the same mindset as the 1800s and gave an example. I can tell you how to rob a bank too.  That is not illegal, but if you are stupid enough to do it that is on you.  I can tell you how to hack a government server.  Again, that's not illegal, but if you try it and get caught that is on you.  Information is free and legal while using that information may not necessarily be so.  I would never want to be a cop, they have to follow too many rules. I prefer not having any rules to follow, per se.

seen you start a topic with cracked software and downloading  from many here  so you steal yourself if stealing is stealing . All someone do is look at  all you're  post content  and see how you keep contradicting yourself over and over . You changed you're story a million times in the 2 years i seen you on here .

 

You quoting   someone  in the 3rd post and telling them about things from you're country .There laws are not even the same as yours so you must be drunk , nuts or just trolling? in places like Iceland  the Pirate party is fixing to be the government .

 

I never knew no one to go too jail for just downloading a movie in the USA  .Even the prison system was busted showing them to prisoners . but fined yes a  money racket is all it is. the Air Force is being sued for piracy . When TF  done research  govt  buildings  all over the USA be downloading from p2p .

 

In the USA they been putting people in jail for things like drugs in jail for  decades . Now they decide to stat commercializing it and making it legal in many states. So its nothing to go on YouTube and seeing famous people from the USA on a 420 show smoking .  They decided to profit from it is all .Sin laws = the government has not been able to figure out how too make money on it yet . If  Hollywood was smart  as the pirates they would figure out a way to profit  from it free like pirates do  . Google , Facebook  and others all figured out a way to profit from free  but Hollywood are not smart as pirates . I'm not going to go out and buy there movies if there not on P2P . I will just watch TV instead

 

[SnakeMasteR]

[pc71520]

These ISPs...