Slashdot Mirror
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.
Ugh, for crying out loud. I can only hope that the judges are more sane than the persecutors.
It is still a question if that's "stealing" at all but they just have to put someone in prison for it anyway.
Seems like what they're hoping for is that the whole P2P is a bad dream and if they POP it hard enough, it will all go at once. Next aim would be to put a man on an electric chair, I guess?
So... How hard do they need to abuse the next victim for you to stop downloading? Prison? Ass rape? Work camps? Sheesh.
I don't know about everyone else, but copyright violations seem like they should ONLY be civil. This criminal prosecution is just taken to far: congress was even attempting to pass a bill that would make copyright violation a criminal offense in the US! (I dont think it passed though..)
Won't putting these people in jail prevent the copyright holders of collecting damages? (Isn't that the point: that they are supposed to be reimbursed for lost money?)
If this happened in the US, the end result would be that everyone that is ever convicted of copyright violation is going to be punished twice: jailtime plus civil lawsuit...
From the article: "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.
Hopefully, this sort of more sane attitude will prevail. How is this different than if he lent a copy of the DVD to a friend?
In many countries, it would be acceptable to view it, copy it, or parts, while it's in the borrowers possession.
This should be the case here. The whole world is surely watching this case! Use your heads Sweden!!!
Oh my gawd, they killed kenny's mod points!!!!
Almost every artice I read involving IP law in Europe shows that the legislative and judicial bodies in Europe display far more common sense than the their American counterparts, which appear to be motivated only by "good ol' boy" corporate greed and a misplaced sense of righteousness. It's readily apparent to me that the real innovations in contentent delivery and IP law reforms that are soreley needed will come from Europe, not the US.
This isn't the sig you're looking for... Move along.
So a human life is worth about 8 pirated movies.
Good to know.
Granted, but what about this further distinction:
* Copyright infringement, for profit (illegal reselling of a copyrighted work for which you have no rights).
* Copyright infringement without profit (illegal redistribution, for free).
Would you agree that the second is of a lesser degree. And that it is closer to "free advertisement" (as in: "look, I like this movie/music, I think it's cool, don't you share my view?").
In yet another critical test case, prosecutors say that anything less than a prison sentence would make future prosecutions of people exceeding the speed limit by 16 km/h(10mph) unlikely.
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
Really. Not from what I see in this story.
My question is this, isn't entrapment illegal in Sweden?
If not then I think the need a major overhaul in there laws.
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Where is your sense of proportion now?
Do you want another example? Ok, I have one right here. A guy (drunk) crashes his car into a building at high speed, kills one bystander. Previously, they have taken away his license three times for drinking and driving, speeding and reckless behaviour. End result? One year in prison. Please put him in jail with that Swede, I think they have a lot in common (sarcasm overdose).
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And the point would still be valid. A life is worth more than every movie ever made; any punishment for copyright violation that includes jail time is out of proportion.
By the same token anyone who risks jail time to download Big, is a bit crazy.
Actually, I think he mostly speaks in Swedish, since he's from Sweden. That's a large Country in the north of Europe (an area called Scandinavia), boasting one of the world's best education systems, an extremely well developed technological infrastructure (far better than the US, for example) and very strict ecological standards. The people there have got a language that is different from English (although remotely connected, both being germanic languages). English -- since you might wonder -- that's the language you've just used. Or, well, tried to. Swedish sounds quite different when compared to English. It is much more melodic. "Bork" is not a very common word in Swedish, as far as I know.
Surprisingly enough, the swedish people, despite having this beautiful old language, try very hard to learn and speak English, because it happens to be a very popular language all over the world. It might be that a few of them have a rather strong accent, but you should hear how ridicolous native english speakers sound when they try to speak _any_ other language.
Sorry for ranting. I know you where joking. But jokes about other people's lack of english skills mostly come from persons who have never mastered a foreign language (we don't even talk about their own...), that pisses me off.
And, by the way: I'm not swedish. But all (8) the swedish people I know are extremely proficient in English.
he isn't flaunting that US/EU laws have no effect; he is simply mentioning that bittorrents are not illegal. if bittorrents were illegal, then so would a http reference from slashdot. keep in mind a bittorrent only tells you how to get the files by providing information as to where the file is being tracked. its not the copyrighted file in question that he is hosting.
hence, its perfectly legal.
move the servers to Russia or some other place where they still have freedom
Man how times have changed...