The Pirate Bay Italy block deemed illegal

The Pirate Bay has seen a block on its website in Italy overturned by a judge.

The website was censored in Italy back in August when an Italian prosecutor managed to get the majority of ISPs to stop their customers from accessing the site.

After an appeal by the website, however, this decision has been overturned, and better yet deemed illegal by the Court of Bergamo.

This change of tact may set a precedent for the access of foreign websites in Italy, mainly that no foreign website can be blocked for having content that allegedly infringes copyright.

No provision for copyright infringement

Pirate Bay’s lawyers Giovanni Battista Gallus and Francesco Micozzi spoke to Torrent Freak about the decision and said: “Under Italian law, this is possible only for child porn and for unauthorized gambling, but there is no such provision for copyright infringement.

“We have to make sure that no legislative bill promoting such filtering provisions will be passed in the future.

“At the European level, many authorities pointed out the need to find a balance between the enforcement of alleged copyright infringements, users’ rights, and privacy issues.”

Should ISPs protect us on the net?

An anti-virus software company has called on ISPs to protect their customers, rather than leaving it to consumers to do themselves.

With the House of Lords debating internet security, F-Secure’s UK and Ireland manager Richard Hales has insisted that it is not the government or the consumers that should look after security, but the internet service providers.

ISPs are currently doing their utmost to be seen as merely conduits to the internet, meaning the active monitoring of people’s downloads and browsing would not only be a massively unpopular breach of privacy but also ramp up their responsibility.

Stronger control

However, Hales insists that the government should assert stronger control over ISPs and make them provide ‘security’ as part of the package.

“The Government is right when it says consumers should not manage their own Internet security. Many people do not realise how vulnerable their personal information is and many rely on outdated security software or even worse, none at all,” said Hales.

“In contrast to other members of the EU with much tougher restrictions, the Government has been slow off the mark in dealing with Internet crime. In a perfect world, the consumer would be completely removed from the equation with internet service providers taking responsibility.

“This would mean that Internet security would be a de-facto addition to any and every Internet connection, security-as-a-service offered by ISPs protects customers much more effectively.”

Escalating internet threats

He continues: “Our own experience of 175 ISPs globally shows that in cases where security is part of the package, in excess of 70 per cent of consumers make use of the service.

“By asserting stronger control over ISPs and introducing industry-wide security standards, users will be better protected from escalating internet threats.

“It is also the responsibility of the security industry to work with local Government and international law enforcement agencies to report Internet crime and bring criminals to justice.”

Of course, should this happen and ISPs opt for companies other than F-Secure, Hales’ comments could well come back to haunt him.