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First Swede Prosecuted For File Sharing

Posted by Zonk on from the hope-he-has-a-gameboy dept.

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.

4 of 432 comments (clear)

  1. Nice prosecutor by bigtallmofo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I thought the headline First Swede prosecuted for sharing files on net was fairly ominous but then I felt better after I read down a bit...

    Here's a quote from the prosecutor:

    "As these cases do not involve criminals, but instead quite ordinary people who share their files, any prison sentence would certainly be suspended," Rudström said.

    Is it just me or does this sound like something that would be said by a defense attorney?

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
    1. Re:Nice prosecutor by remahl · · Score: 4, Interesting

      According to Swedish law, the responsibility of the prosecutor is not to get the most severe punishment, but the most appropriate and lawful one. The prosecutor may not even prosecute if he/she is not reasonably sure it will result in a conviction.

  2. APB themselves aren't really spreading files by Jugalator · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    More exactly: for paying a person to infiltrate an ISP to download and spread copyrighted files there, and later sue that ISP. I don't think the infiltrator was actually employed by the anti-piracy bureau; he just got some money to do the job. Also, it's not known anyone else at APB has in any case done this themselves. It's still of course quite dirty tactics to sue an ISP, and I hope they're not getting away with it.

    --
    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  3. APB caught violating copyright! by d99-sbr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now this will certainly crack you up, but it turns out that Swedish public access radio (SR) channel P3 did an interview with Antipiratbyrån (APB) a while ago. APB then went ahead and published this interview on their website. Naturally, republishing a recording from radio is an obvious copyright violation.

    Somehow, SR discovered this. They brought their legal counsel into the studio, rang up APB, and confronted them. APB's response?

    * Firstly, they try to claim that they only link to the audio clip, and not a copy of it. The legal counsel shoots this down immediately citing a court decision where linking directly to a file is equivalent to sharing a copy.

    * Secondly, APB claim that what they are really looking for are pirates who make a lot of money from their piracy. As has been discussed pretty heavily in Swedish media, this kind of piracy is virtually nonexistent in Sweden.

    * Thirdly, they dismiss the whole thing, because, and this is the best thing: THEY ARE TOO BUSY HUNTING DOWN PIRATES!

    This news hasn't really broken yet, and because of easter holdays I believe it won't until early next week.

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