First Swede Convicted For File-Sharing Now Cleared

Caine writes, "A 29-year old Swede, who was the first to be convicted under last year's new file-sharing laws, has been cleared on appeal. The court of appeal did not consider the screen dumps provided by the Antipiracy Bureau enough evidence to be able to convict the man. Since the crime does not carry a high enough punishment under Swedish law to allow for a search of the defendant's house, this means it will be virtually impossible to prove file-sharing crimes in the future."

Comments

Heh

[B3ryllium]

Technicalities like that always amuse me, especially when they work out in favour of "the little guy". We have a few laws like that here in Canada, and I hope they don't change.

Re:Heh

[PriceIke]

> When the people are cheering because the state can't use the mechanics of society to
> effectively enforce the law, that means there's something very fundimentally wrong.

Unless there's something fundamentally wrong with the law. Then it's a reason to cheer.

Re:Heh

[a_n_d_e_r_s]

The law as it was written - before the new version - was that downloading a song from the Internet was not a crime. It was also allowed to share it with family and friends. Thus P2P of others material was basically lawful before the law was changed and a large number of people was used to this activity being legal now found themselves being criminals. In fact there exist parties in parlament (yes not only the Pirate Party wants this) that want the old law back as it was before this was was changed.

So there are many in Sweden who think the law needs to be changed. Many feel that the copyright law was heavily changed in favour of the music industry and not taking into account peoples former rights regarding copyrighted materials.

Re:Not exactly 'scot free'

[Scarblac]

If you Google for "best countries to live in" and click a few links, it seems that Sweden comes #5 once, #6 once, and #2 on a few other lists (that may have the same source).

Re:Not exactly 'scot free'

[malsdavis]

Sweden also have amongst the highest HDI (Human Development Index) in the world. HDI is basically the U.N.'s measure of wuality of life based on Health, Education, lack of Crime, lack of poverty etc. Sweden and it's North European neighbours are always jostling for the top spot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_ Human_Development_Index (UN HDI Rankings)

Re:Not exactly 'scot free'

[DynamicPhil]

Myth: Busted:

There is a common belief, especially in the US, that Sweden has a higher rate of suicide than other countries; this is actually a myth, as Sweden has an average suicide rate. The myth was probably started because the secular government of Sweden started to measure suicide statistics openly before other countries did. President Eisenhower saw this as a chance to promote his political ideology, and maintained that the statistics showed Sweden was the country of "free love, high taxes and suicide" (none of this was particularly true at the time). Also, the dark, relatively cold climate of Sweden in the winter has added fuel to this myth. (see "Suicide and Season" below).

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_rates

Re:Screen dumps inadmissable?

[grazzy]

It would be funny, it's just that the morons at the swedish "anti piracy bureu" tried just this. They even FAXED the screenshosts - because we ALL know that faxed documents are digital and thus exact copies of everything sacred and holy.

Courts do not have the technical expertise to understand how pathetic and stupid it is to use a screenshot of a common program running as a evidence in a trial that changes the outcome of millions of people. I can accept you get a fine for it, but this was a legal matter which carried a conviction. Not anywhere near where you want evidence like that.

Best part is, they "trusted" the evidence since it came from such a renomed organization, namely the people paid of by the entertainment industry to throw their own customers in jail. Not exactly a outfit I'd enjoy taking care of my savings..

Re:The ads on TFA say it all

[Apocalypse111]

Actually, most Swedes speak english as well or better than Americans, or so I have been given to believe. Looking more and more inviting by the second.

Re:Yay

[Cruise_WD]

This is a bit like "this only affects criminals/terrorists/paedophiles."

The usual rejoinder for which is, who defines criminality or terrorist behaviour? What stops that from becoming broader?
Considering some of the behaviour currently being flagged as suspicious by over-enthusiastic law-enforcement, not much, apparently.

Ditto copyright. DRM has already given much greater control over "copyrighted" material than copyright ever did, and the lobbying doesn't appear to be slowing down. How long before it becomes illegal to read anything without paying per word? It's nice to know there will be some countries where it won't be illegal to use your computer, or acquire information for yourself.

Re:Screen dumps inadmissable?

[andol221]

Try this link to generate your own "evidence" http://www.piratbyran.org/bevismaskinen/