International rightsholders including Sony have approached several South African ISPs

International rightsholders including Sony have approached several South African ISPs with requests for them to hand over the personal details of alleged pirates. The ISPs say they are refusing to play ball.

While Europe and the United States are the main regions of the world being policed for copyright violations, Internet users in other areas are also beginning to feel the heat.

According to a MyBroadband report, several Internet service providers in South Africa have been approached by rightsholders with requests for them to hand over the personal details of their subscribers.

However, ISPs in this part of the world seem in no mood to cooperate and have been denying the requests.

Laurie Fialkov, CEO at Cybersmart, said that they are receiving requests all the time, typically from Sony who claim that the ISP’s customers are pirating movies and music using BitTorrent. The requests are being denied since Fialkov believes those complaining have no jurisdiction in South Africa.

Web Africa CTO Alan Kirton says that his company has also received demands from rightsholders but his company does not comply with the requests either.

“The standard request is to disable the account while maintaining any evidence that may be relevant in a lawsuit,” he said.

“Web Africa takes the view that it is not responsible for policing the internet and will only act where required by South African law.”