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Sweden Bans Copyrighted Downloading

Posted by Zonk on from the a-less-friendly-EU dept.

Xiar Prime writes "Swedish lawmakers have made downloading of copyrighted material illegal, one day after an 11-nation piracy crackdown. Prior to the passing of the law, it was only illegal to provide copyrighted material, not download it." From the article: " The law was drawn up to bring Sweden into line with EU directives and is also part of a wider crackdown on net piracy. It comes a day after the US Attorney General's office announced an 11-nation operation to catch and shut down net piracy groups."

1 of 449 comments (clear)

  1. Re:especially when the analogy is bad. by Wile_E_Peyote · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    You're exactly right. Morality aside (i.e., I'm not condoning piracy), download is not stealing, because you are not taking anything away from someone.

    Steal means to take without permission. It has nothing to do with depriving someone of something nor is it limited to physical objects, it describes the act of taking without permission.

    Take means to get into ones possesion.

    Therefore, if you bring a piece of copyrighted material into your possession without permission, you have stolen it.

    Sources:
    dictionary.com
    etymonline.com