File-Sharing Sites Hit Back At ISP For Blocking Access

A Swedish file-sharing site and an Internet service provider are in a tit-for-tat fight over customer access.

Web site The Pirate Bay and a pro-piracy group are blocking customers using ISP Perspektiv in protest of the ISP's decision to block its customers' access to a Russian site, allofmp3.com.

The Swedish file-sharing site and its supporters at the Bureau of Piracy are hoping that Perspektiv customers will become frustrated by their lack of access to both The Pirate Bay and allofmp3.com and switch to other Internet access providers. The two sites are urging other sites to follow suit, publishing code to block Perspektiv users.

In an announcement explaining the action, the pro-piracy group said it's not supporting allofmp3.com but trying to prevent the Internet from sliding down a slope of "arbitrary censorship."

"This kind of moral policing is an attack on the essence of what has made internets such a wonderful arena for communication," the Pirate Bureau explained through a prepared statement. "[The] Internet can be this vibrant space much thanks to the stupidity of the infrastructure, it delivers data from A to B, no questions asked. Configuration and intelligence is left to the end users. Choosing what is transferred is up to you and me, not your ISP nor the Chinese or your own government."

The piracy groups stated that allofmp3.com is legal under Swedish law and that Perspektiv explained its decision was moral. Perspektiv's reasoning hasn't been stated in English and couldn't be confirmed.

The piracy groups wished the ISP a quick bankruptcy.