Specifically Mr Sallinen asks the police to investigate whether or not the companies are in violation of the Finnish criminal law which strictly prohibits any kinds of interference with telecommunications. Viralg manufactures and markets a product which, according to them, breaks P2P downloads by injecting "bad data" to people downloading copyrighted material. According to Viralg, BMG Finland has been successfully using their technology since 2003.
Even though Viralg's technique of faking file hashes works only with some of the old peer-to-peer applications, such as Kazaa, it is nevertheless illegal to take matters into one's own hands when fighting against copyright infringements. Furthermore, downloading or copying music and video files for personal use via P2P networks (or any other means) is still perfectly legal in Finland. In his request for investigation Mr Sallinen reminds the investigators that action should be taken before companies take up a habit in defending their rights by illegal means.
Source:
Request for investigation by Pekka Sallinen (in Finnish)
Written by: Jari Ketola @ 21 Apr 2005 13:16
