After forcing a single ISP in Denmark to block The Pirate Bay, it now appears that the IFPI has a plan to sue all of the major Swedish ISPs to force them to do the same. Telia Sonera, a large Swedish ISP is refusing to be bullied, stating that such blocking and filtering actions are illegal under EU law.

Now that the IFPI has realized that it can’t sue every file-sharer in the world, it tries to force ISPs to block their customers from accessing filesharing sites such as The Pirate Bay. The IFPI recently forced an Israeli ISP to block access to HTTPShare.com – which boosted its visitors significantly – but it’s the block it achieved against The Pirate Bay in Denmark that is currently being used as leverage against other ISPs, this time in Sweden.

When IFPI pressure forced Danish ISP ‘Tele2’ to block access to The Pirate Bay, the trade organization chose to view this as some sort of landmark decision which could be used to make other ISPs take the same action, regardless of the likelihood that the block ordered by Denmark broke EU law. According to reports, the IFPI is using this ‘successful’ block as a legal hammer to start hitting Swedish ISPs over the head with, as it formulates its plan to sue all of Sweden’s major ISPs into blocking The Pirate Bay.

One such ISP is Telia Sonera, the dominant internet provider in Sweden with a total of 106 million subscribers across Europe. According to a report, they have received a letter from the IFPI which states that legal measures will be taken against them unless they block The Pirate Bay initially, and also some other (as yet unnamed) sites connected to it.

However, Telia is highly experienced in its field and has a very clear understanding of its obligations under the law, law which does not require them to block sites or filter content.

Patrik Hiselius of Telia Sonera explains: “The rules say that we as Internet carriers are not allowed to listen in on what our customers are sending to each other or are talking with each other about. That’s something police and prosecutors are allowed to do after a decision has been made about it in court.”

Unfortunately for the IFPI, the law is very stringent when it comes to wiretapping communications. Eavesdropping is allowed, but only in cases of very severe crime.

Anna HÃ¶rnlund, a lawyer with the The Swedish Post and Telecom Agency believes that it’s impossible to identify illegal file-sharing without breaking the law on wiretapping: “To get access to this information, there needs to be a crime that is punishable by imprisonment and where a prosecutor believes charges can be made that leads to prison. In those cases, the ISP can hand over the information to the police. I don’t know how they think they will get through this by suing the ISP.”

Patrik Hiselius of Telia Sonera agrees that the record companies have a problem to solve he says they are approaching the issue in the wrong manner: “The best way to meet the demand for music and film on the Internet would be to make good, simple legal services available with good pricing. The legal sites still have lots of shortcomings when it comes to availability.”

The IFPI has recently sued Irish ISP Eircom, claiming that it’s responsible for the actions of its users. TJ McIntyre, chairman of Digital Rights Ireland (DRI) said: “ISPs are intermediaries. They are not, in law, responsible for what Internet users do, any more than [the post office] is responsible for what individuals send in the mail. In fact, European law specifically states that they may not be put under a general obligation to monitor the information they transmit.”

Clearly the IFPI believes that European law doesn’t count when applied to their interests. If their lawyers weren’t getting so financially fat from these frivolous lawsuits, maybe they would take the time to explain it to them.