Sweden’s Domain Registrar Accused of Facilitating Copyright Infringement

The Internet Infrastructure Foundation, local company responsible for top-level domain name registrations (.se), refused to ban The Pirate Bay’s domain names. As a result, it is now charged by the Sweden’s prosecution office with facilitating copyright violation.

After The Pirate Bay knew that Swedish authorities were going to go after its .se domain names, it ran to Greenland, then Iceland, and finally settled at Sint Maarten (.sx). So, the largest BitTorrent tracker in the world doesn’t use its .se domain names any longer, but the Swedish government is determined to cut all the connections of the website with the Internet Infrastructure Foundation. This is why the local authorities filed a petition with the Stockholm District Court, demanding the domain registrar to take action against TPB’s domains. The company refused to comply.

The legal system failed to shut down the service after its first verdict against the BitTorrent tracker. Therefore the prosecutor has launched a new case against both the domain holders and .se, accusing them of assisting The Pirate Bay to facilitate copyright violation.

In the meanwhile, the Internet Infrastructure Foundation points out that there are no previous cases of states suing a registry for abetting criminal activity or breaching copyright legislation. Indeed, the company did nothing but to provide with a service that’s meant to link URLs to a specific IP address. For instance, they do the same for Google(.se).

There is a complex system out there which is keeping the Internet online, and the registry is just a part of it. The company will now have to explain to the District Court what a domain name is, what it does, and to emphasize fundamentally incorrect nature of seizing a domain name forever. However, the trial costs money, which will be taken out of the company’s educational programs (they have to educate the court, after all) instead of investing in schools or digital inclusion.

In the event that the authorities win the case, the registrar will be forced to erase any evidence that TPB’s .se domains ever existed. Still, the Internet Infrastructure Foundation compares removing a domain name to taking down the signs hanging outside the store – of course, it would hinder customers to find it, but does nothing to a store itself.