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Anti-Piracy Bureau of Sweden Planted Evidence
American Sweden writes "Concerning the bust
at the Swedish ISP Bahnhof on March 10, IDG Sweden is reporting that Bahnhof
has posted their findings of an internal inspection. It seems as if the Anti-Piracy
Buereau of Sweden and their infiltrator "Rouge" had a good deal of involvement in supporting the busted FTP server not only with hardware but with so called "warez" as well. The blog of Lars Backlund has a translated version of the interview conducted in the report of Bahnhof." P2PNet.net has a breakdown of the relevant details as well. From the article: "As it turns out, APB (or, rather, their hired informer) supplied the servers and uploaded copyrighted materials. So that's why they were so sure to find stuff, they put it there!"
>So that's why they were so sure to find stuff, they put it there!
Well, the fun part is that they actually did not find the stuff they were looking for (specified to the court), and IIRC, they didn't even find the servers they were looking for.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Well, I don't disagree with you. But I feel that it would be appropriate to point out that APB is not a government organization. It's just some people that are paid by various companies, and thus APB hasn't got any more rights than anyone else here.
They're saying that the hired infiltrator had retrieved and shared the most part of all games and movies released during 2004. To gain more space for all copies, the infiltrator had even bought and sent hardware for a total of SEK 20,000 ($2,800). In the beginning of March, he was supposed to send hard drives totalling at 800 GB, however the raid came in between.
Even worse, this raid was part supported by STIM, an organization partially funded by the swedish government.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Meaning, maybe he was a kid busted for warez, and the police offered him a deal (no jail time in return for access to the server). So the end result may be that he was working for the police, but he wasn't in fact the police.
1) Police don't make deals. Procecutors do.
2) Swedish procecutor's do not. It's an american practice.
3) The guy wasn't working for law enforcement. He recived payment from the 'anti piracy bureau' which is not a law-enforcement or government agency, but rather the Swedish equivalent of the MPAA/RIAA.
If that's the case, then I don't think the argument of planting evidence is going to work.
Entrapment isn't legal even if the police do it. It certainly isn't legal when a private citizen does it.
a) A license (or broader: "authorization") to distribute freely, does not imply a change in its copyright status. See BSD, GPL or any other license.
b) By default distribution and reproduction are exclusive rights of the copyright holder. Even if you legally download it (signing no license at all), none of those rights have been given to you.
Perhaps you should read 5 of the GPL (it applies equally well to any other software without a license):
"You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License."
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Our liability figures are low here in Scandinavia, so it probably wouldn't be worth the effort by itself. Right now, this is mostly a PR disaster. It does have some very interesting criminal prosecution possibilities though, all Bahnhof needs to do is to press charges. From there the public justice system would drag APB through court, and Bahnhof would have a walk-over in civil court afterwards. That is much more common here.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
For you guys who know swedish hereis an interview where the public radio calls Henrik Pontén (The APB lawyer in question previously) and ask him how they could do that. My favourite quote (Liberally translated to English): "We are currently very busy hunting pirates. I don't have time to check our webpage every day".
Looks like a 21st century version of Sergeant Norman Pilcher's campaign against rock star druggies.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
..the sig of the person you're correcting? "(...) I am a lawyer. (...)"
Copyrights must be defended. Failing to do so means you lose your copyright.
Copyright does not have to be defended. Patents and trademarks must be. If you are careless with your copyright *notices*, it may exempt violators from liability. However, most any software/movie etc is full of copyright notices. As long as it is clearly marked as copyrighted, nothing can undo it nor the liabilities.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
These are some of the members companies of the Swedish Anti-Piracy Bureau. My guess is that most anti-piracy groups are run by them.
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
CAPITOL FILM DISTRIBUTION
Columbia TriStar Films
Microsoft
PAN Vision
Paramount Home Entertainment
Sandrew Metronome
Scanbox Entertainment
Universal Pictures
Vivendi Universal Games
Warner Home Video
Universal Music
EMI Music
Sony Music Entertainment