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First Swede Prosecuted For File Sharing
praps writes "The Local reports that a 27-year old man who allowed people to download a film from his PC has become the first Swede to be charged with illegal file sharing, after a tip-off from the country's notorious Anti-Piracy Bureau. It's a critical test case, as prosecutors say that anything less than a prison sentence would make future prosecutions unlikely." From the article: "The case was brought after a tip off from Antipiratbyrån (APB), a lobby organization set up by the media industry to combat illegal downloading in Sweden. Since the man was reported APB has found itself in hot water, with an Internet company accusing the organization itself of illegally downloading films and games.
A prison sentence for copyright infrigement? Are we loosing the sense of proportion here?
What about murderers? Oh right, they also get prison sentences.
Sweden does not have the death penalty (in fact, the abolishment of the death penalty is a requirement for becoming a member of the European Union). And fortunately, Sweden's not Australia, either, so there's probably no real chance that this guy (or someone else) will be extradited to the USA to undergo trial there.
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
Both web site and tracker working for me at the moment.
Linux Wireless Hardware in the UK
This could be the end of the low ratio of torrents deleted vs. the law suits...
My file døwnløåding sister wås bitten by an antipiratbyrån once...
FYI...
Norway and Denmark:
å : aa, æ : ae, ø : oe
Sweden:
å : aa, ä : ae, ö : oe
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
"accusing the organization itself of illegally downloading films and games."
Downloading ? No its uploading they are accused of. One informant they hired was the main one responsible for uploading films, music and computer programs to a computer at a ISP who they later got the police to raid and take for evidence.
The thing is a whole mess with basically everyone involved having been accused of misconduct or unlawful activities - ISP, police and the APB.
Just saying it like it are.
The reason the prosecutors want a prison sentence is this:
According to Swedish secrecy law, the ISPs can only be ordered to reveal the identities behind IP numbers if the crime is worth a prison sentence. This case will serve as a precedent. If this guy is spared from prison (very likely), ISPs will no longer reveal file sharers identity.
You see, just because you're redistributing Coyrighted material does not make it loose its Copyrighted status. Therefore, the nth degree person taking the work and selling it is the one committing prejudice, and that prejudice cannot be transitively transferred back.
Also, for illegal redistribution of Copyrighted material, infringement must be used instead of piracy.
It is forbidden. The police are not allowed to entice a suspect to commit crime in any way.
Opinions stated are mine and do not reflect those of the Illuminati
"It is, for example, a breach of copyright laws to copy a music book, but it is not illegal to receive or use the copied book," said the party's legal affairs spokesman, Johan Linander. "It should be no more complicated than that in the digital arena," he added.
That's the smartest comment I've seen on the whole P2P fiasco.
I agree with you, but this is a difficult matter since it conflicts with basic human emotions - greed and lazyness. A software company for instance, can put a lot of manhours on producing a product. They then want to earn back what they've put into it (you have to feed even the programmers sometimes, you know). The easiest way to do that is sell it on a CD. You just cram out a shitload of cds and put those in stores and if the product is any good, people will buy. Easy money.
// no I don't have a sig
Now you say that anyone should be able to distribute copies for free. That means that I can buy a CD, then make a shitload of copies and put them in piles outside the store. Nobody would then buy the product from the stores, since it's available for free right outside. The company wouldn't make any money out of it and all the programmers would starve to death. Another one bites the dust.
The solution is ofcourse to implement a different buissness model. For instance as http://www.mysql.com/ is doing - give away your product for free and charge for professional support. This is far from easy and requires good managing skills, something that many company-leaders lack.
What about music? A successfull artist could live of giving concerts to the fans, that download and share the music. Movies? The movie-hiring buissness would dissapear, so the only thing left would be movie-theaters. Wouldn't people stop going to theaters if you could download the movie? Not if you have reasonable prices and give a good experience. What experience? Well I don't know, it doesn't exist yet, cause nobody cared to come up with one since what we have now is "good enough". Myself, I'd even be happy with the current one, if only they'd lower the prices. As it is, I almost never go to movies.
With the old model, you can make lot of money fast. With the new one you have to struggle to make your living. The result? Big lazy companies lobbying for laws that will make it possible for them to continue to make loads of money fast and easy.
But I have a feeling that it will not last. If everybody on this planet were lazy stupid bums, the big companies would win and we would get lousy products for a high price and people would still eat it, since nobody cared. But obvously there are many that care and do something about it and I think that is enough to make sure that we are on the right track to the "Free Information" future =)