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Illegal internet service is blocked in collaboration between RettighedsAlliancen and the Danish Media Association

Illegal internet service is blocked in collaboration between RettighedsAlliancen and the Danish Media Association

Article ID:

22490

18.06.2019 – On Monday, June 17, the Danish court in Frederiksberg ordered the blocking of an internet service that illegally copied articles from Danish news media and made money on this through advertising.

For the first time in Denmark, an internet service that copies articles and images from online Danish news media will be blocked by Danish internet providers.

The illegal internet service registered in Panama has acquired copies of articles by accessing Danish news media’s websites and copying the content in the form of both text and images, after which they have been stored on private servers and made available on the service’s website.

On April 12, 2019, there were 141,836 copies of Danish news media articles available on the service, which has enjoyed great popularity among online users in Denmark. In the first quarter of 2019 alone, the service on average had 31,587 monthly visits from Danish IP’s.

A copyright victory
In RettighedsAlliancen and the Danish Media Association, it is considered that the blocking of the illegal service will help limit the extent of violations against Danish news media rights.

Illegal internet service is blocked in collaboration between RettighedsAlliancen and the Danish Media Association

“The injunction is a copyright victory, among other things because our experience in RettighedsAlliancen shows that blocking of illegal services diverts an average drop of 75% in the number of visitors,” says Director of RettighedsAlliancen, Maria Fredenslund.

However, it is not only copyright infringements that the blockage protects against – also the undermining of the media’s business model.

A blockage will also effectively prevent cash flows from ending up in the hands of criminal backers. The blocked illegal Panama-based service has, among other things, earned money from advertising revenue from visitors to the website – revenue that Danish news media misses.

The Internet service, for example, has placed ads in connection with the article copies, which means that the service has received ad revenue when users have read the articles on the service. The Danish news media’s business model has thus been undermined, and the criminal backers have earned money on the journalistic investment and publicity work of Danish news media.

The industry organization the Danish Media Association is very pleased with the court’s ruling, which contributes to the enforcement of the media’s copyright:

“It is expensive to produce credible, informative and independent journalism, and thus there is a great need to stop the illegal exploitation of media content, which undermines the media economy and therefore the possibility of continuing news production. That is why we are very satisfied with the court’s ruling,” says Holger Rosendal, Chief Legal Officer at the Danish Media Association.

About the Danish Media Association The Danish Media Association is an industry organization for private Danish media. We fight for the journalistically edited media, freedom of expression, the free independent press and healthy framework conditions for the media sector. The Danish Media Association counts just under 300 members and almost 900 media titles. Read more at www.danskemedier.dk.

About RettighedsAlliancen RettighedsAlliancen is an interest organization representing more than 100.000 creatives across the audiovisual, music, publishing, computer games, photos, and design industries. RettighedsAlliancen’s core mission is promoting a safe and sustainable online environment for both users and creative businesses by making it easier to choose legal options by making it difficult to provide and consume infringing content online. Read more at www.rettighedsalliancen.dk.

Contact details for further comments:
The Danish Media Association, Christoffer Lehmann, tel. +45 28 96 53 56
RettighedsAlliancen, Sofie Guldager Rafn, tel. +45 22 10 08 25

Author

Michael Spinner-Just's picture

Michael Spinner-Just

Date

2019-06-24 10:28