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MPAA and FBI Help To Train Swedish Police
Several readers let us know about a program in which a US FBI agent and employees of the MPAA led a seminar for Swedish police officers in methods of finding and stopping illegal downloading from the Internet. The writer at zeropaid.com says, "I bet the Swedish people are going to love to find out that the US government and a US lobbying group now have a hand in training their police personnel. So much for the notion of national sovereignty." Reader Oxygen provided a bit of translation from an article in Swedish on IDG.se: "According to Bertil Ramsell, responsible for the course, the purpose of the visit was to give the invited speakers a chance to explain to the students what their organization's purpose was. But in a report from the IIPA, the purpose was to educate students in anti-piracy."
Get out your guns and start shooting at heads of state and their cronies, and also the corporate CEO's and their cronies.
It's time the governments of the world feared the people.
As time goes on and power is consolidated in the world, smaller powers will find themselves increasingly strongly attached to the main power bloc with which they are affiliated. Thus European nations find themselves increasingly Americanized, Asia finds itself increasingly Sinicized, and the Islamic world finds itself increasingly dominated by relatively uniform fundamentalist thinking, as opposed to the diverse, relatively secular regional ideologies that prevailed in the last century.
Eventually, the three nations of Eurasia, Eastasia and Oceania will settle down into their near-endless cold war.
P.S. Eastasia will win.
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
There are United States military troops in Germany, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Colombia, the Phillipines, Indonesia, Kosovo, Egypt, Singapore, Thailand, the UK, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, Qatar, Bahrain, Cuba, etc. etc. etc. We run the Iraqi and Afghanistan governments. Training Swedish police is not a threat to national sovereignty, and if you dispute this, it still barely scrapes the iceberg. It's hysteria to complain that training foreign governments is intruding on their sovereignty if they request it.
We train police around the world, in almost all situations, our assistance is requested and welcomed. (by the governments, at least) If the wholly independent Swedish government and the people were opposed, there might be a case.
Complain about training them in bad DMCA-style law enforcement, or in RIAA-scare-tactics. Don't complain about a foreign country asking and receiving assistance.
From TFA:
FBI agent Andrew Myers and the MPAA have given a group of six Swedish police officers extensive training on how to effectively combat piracy and catch people who engage in illegal downloading from the internet.
How exactly is the MPAA able to teach Swedish police how to "effectively combat piracy", when the MPAA themselves fail to achieve that?
And suddenly the popularity of the "Piratpartiet" bumps up to 56%, and steals 2/3 of the sweedish parliament on next election...
Thank you, RIAA, this was the most intelligent thing to do.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
If this were really happening, what would you think?
Well, in the UK children who study computer science study a module that basically tells them how to comply with software licences, and that it is illegal to "copy software".
...so long, piratebay, and thanks for all the torrents...
From http://www2.piratpartiet.se/ in my translation:
"The judicial system is make a mistake a see these lobby organisations as some sort of private police corp. Their only interest is to keep their old profitable monopoly. There organisations have nothing to do in our judicial system, says The Pirate Partys partyleader Rickard Falkvinge."
That pretty much sums it up if you ask me.
TC - My Photos..
The most wonderful irony is that when i quote Orwell to illustrate my opinion of what this means, *I'm* the criminal.
It's been a long time.
so we don't have to fight them here?
I'm guessing that if one were to do careful accounting on this, one would find that taxpayer funds that could be spent more productively elsewhere in Sweden are instead being diverted to enhancing the revenues of foreign publishers. How this is in the Swedish national interest is probably something that no amount of accounting can explain.
...the FBI trains the swedish police - that's not as exciting as one might think. i guess (even though i got no facts on that) that the FBI (or some other "secret service") train almost all of the police forces somewhere...
but why the heck is a lobbyist group involved? yeah, sure. they could give a speech on the matters of piracy and on how we all are doomed if we don't stop the uberevil pirates of the world from ruining markets, margins and stuff. they could even hand out some flyers. a nice powerpoint showing, err, well... facts and figures. but - as a lobbyist group - they should NOT be allowed to tangle with trainings. that's the moment when all parties involved should stand up and state: "nice for coming, folks, thanks for the freebies and now get the f* outta here"
Folks, Swedes are not angels. They are people just like you and me. Yes, there is no RIAA or MPAA in Sweden (yet), but that doesn't mean that there aren't wealthy and powerful people who are pushing their profit-driven agenda, there. The same is true for my country, Finland. Yeah, it's where Linus was born and raised, but it doesn't make it heaven on earth. For example, we have our share of corrupt CxOs, don't worry.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
yeah cause its not like americans ever got training from the french during the american revolution
Why am I suddenly thinking of puppet-police all talking like Swedish Chef from The Muppets..
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
The swedish i know would raise hell because of that issue, its crooked perpetrators, anyone who participated and related government agencies.
There are no news around to that extent yet. We are waiting to see some swedish democracy in action.
Read radical news here
since when did I have any input into government policy? I get to vote once every three years and that is it.
NO, its the corporates that control things...like the mass media, party funding, and so on.
It is still theft.
and we're running out of milk!
It's not a threat to our sovereignity to seek advice and skill from other countries police forces, or from interest groups who knows about piracy and how it is done (and are willing to help).
Why are we doing this?
Well because the US has put some pressure on the last government, so slowly changes are being made. Why do we care what the US says?
We don't want to be the next Cuba (or Iraq before the invasion), our biggest export market is the US (ok it's only 10% but still).
So to please our economic overlords we train 6 police officers to deal with an illegal activity that 1 million swedes do, ie piracy. Is this going to put an end to piracy in sweden? Probably not.
Will it lessen the extent to which there is movie, music and software piracy?
Again probably not. Because the swidish police is still very inefficiant they have to do an godawfull amount of paperwork for every case, and as the laws are right now it's hard to collect evidence against users who are found sharing or downloading copyrighted files on p2p sites or programs, as the police can't get warrants to search computers, and it's illegal for them to hack our computers (regardless of how unprotected it is).
So they will probably try to close down torrent-sites and DC-hubs and find the "key players" in "piracing groups". That provide rips and cracks and what not to the masses.
I guess it's because the sueing tactic RIAA uses in the US is impossible in Sweden.
There's a difference between international law, and American law. Sending the FBI, an organization whose operating objectives are solely to combat INTERNAL national crime (ie. American crimes that cross state borders) NOT international criminal activities. Additionally, there is no justification for the RIAA, an American organization representing American business interests to join hands with the FBI in an international endeavor to fight music downloads. Perhaps something more important, like human trafficking, or arms smuggling -- but even that goes to international police agencies like Interpol. Weird....
I am open source, and Linux baby!
You know, this is how the Vietnam war started. First we send in "advisors". Then we make up a story about being attacked off the coast of Gotland, and the rest is history.
What?
for that, whereas, as they say, a 'worldwide battle against terrorism' is going on at the same time ?
Very curious that, one important government agency can spare resources to spend for a PRIVATE organisation's whims, whereas there are army units deployed in iraq, afghanistan, pakistan is battling a lot of internation terrorist organisations trying to get roots in there, and terrorists are constantly trying to sneak into major western countries ?
Either they are screwing us over terrorist threat level, or they are screwing us over our taxes.
Read radical news here
It's a problem that only one view was represented at the seminar but not so much a threat to sovereignty.
The trade sanctions threat posed earlier is more worrying in this regard.
I'm Swedish and I think like this:
A) Copying IS NOT stealing.
B) As long as the people that made the data that is being copied has a roof over their head and food to eat they can't complain too much. If they have more they should just STFU.
C) A pirate is not bad if he does not use copied content to make money. Pirates that profit is however an issue to talk about.
D) We live and die. If somebody copies a file in order to increase their life's value I say go ahead and let him. It's all about making people's life better, right...?
E) Piracy does absolutely not mean that nobody will go to the movies anymore or buy them. If it somehow does a new legal distribution system needs to be arranged.
F) If you can afford it and want to support the people behind it, and if you are not lazy at the time, go ahead and purchase the item in question.
That is just my brain however. Maybe it can be yours too?
Up until now, I was always apprehensive of visiting Sweden for fear of being assaulted from all angles by pirates trying to get me to buy a bootleg of Justin Timerlake's latest CD, but now I will be able walk the streets of Sweden with confidence.
All jokes aside, this is very disturbing. Even more disturbing is the fact that I have read several comments that don't seem too troubled by this behavior. People have forgotten that the police are a resource used to protect the physical well-being of their fellow citizens. They are not there to protect copyright holders from other countries. And time spent investigating copyright infringement by the police is less time spent investigating real CRIMES. Sweden needs to grow some balls and tell the MPAA to stay out of the police department.
To a more friendly country; like South Africa!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I think it is a good idea that police forces share their ideas. Why shouldn't we know how speeding, murder, traffic jams, illegal music, etc are handled in other countries? It doesn't mean that you have to copy the discussed techniques and apply them without thinking or checking them against your own law system... Typically slashdot: information should be free unless it can be used to check about pirated software or music.
Dear Sweden:
Don't use the American's help. They will have you using shock gernades on people with keyboards and mice. Also any agreements that you sign are actually legal tricks. You might think it is just a disclaimer or something, but that is only because a US federal lawyer made it look innocent. Before you know it, you will be sorry. Take it from Canada and Mexico. Do engage the US! I know they are persistsant. That is how they spread. Just keep ignoring them until they move on.
copies of songs by the wannabe artists. Then they need
to go after Roxette. When they are done with that, they
can go after the motherload: ABBA
Elimination of all traces of ABBA will help the world.
The hell you say!
(Actual quote)
Bork, you're a federal agent! You represent the United States Government! Never end a sentence with a preposition.
from the film
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
I love how the RIAA and MPAA can buy access to the FBI, yet the millions of Americans (heck non-Americans as well) are second-class citizens in the eyes of the Dept of Justice. You mean to tell me the abating intellectual property theft in Europe is more pertinent of an issue than fighting "white collar" crime? Ask the victims of Corporate Criminals (Enron) or dirty politicians (Randy Cunningham) whether they want a 16 year old boy downloading music jailed, or someone who violates the American people's faith in their government? I bet if we looked deep enough, we would find Jack Abramoff's dirty little paw prints all over this!
Republican or Democrat, this is what you get when you vote for deal makers and not leaders. You get politicians who work for corporate lobbyists. Americans are suckers for the line of bullshit from their Democrat or Republican darlings who say that they are the only ethical ones, while the "other party" are the ones to blame for corruption. Voting for the least corrupt candidate is still voting for a crook.
Nice troll by the writer - as if the US and the RIAA just INVADED Sweden, and trained their cops, w/o any interaction with the Swedish government. So much for national sovereignty - the Swedes are giving it away.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I'm glad to see that the FBI has its priorities straight so that it can use its limited resources in a way that will protect the people. We wouldn't want them to squander their budget on less important things like tracking down murderers, child molesters and terrorists.
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
I was thinking of the Swedish scene from "Top Secret", myself. Good stuff. Now excuse me, I have to go put some books away on some very high shelves...
---GEC
I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
In Stafford, Virginia (USA), all public school students must sign the school board's computer use policy (rule 10) which prohibits the removal of any computer data or programs, and prohibits the alteration, destruction, or erasure of computer data. Basically, Susie (in Kindergarten) is in VIOLATION for turning on the computer (alteration of data, logs), editing her picture and saving it to hard disk (alteration of data) and exporting it to a floppy (removal of computer data). A child downloading open source and compiling it is in violation of multiple clauses including downloading software, alteration of computer data, etc.
The head of the school board told me that they were just copying what other school boards do and they had no issue with the rules (I wish I still had the letter). One attorney recommended I change the wording by adding "unauthorized" before signing the agreement. In the DARE program, kids are also being taught that ANY copying of software or music is wrong. These actions are one-sided, based in a "we know best" mentality, and based on the premise that ALL software and music is commercial and hence shall be protected to the fullest extent of the law.
(I have several kids in the Stafford county schools.)
Or maybe the Swedes just wanted to see what the RIAA and FBI are up to so they can help find ways to circumvent their methods.
The pursuit of absolute tolerance leads to the most rigorous and ludicrous intolerance. - REX MURPHY
The American government represents the American "people". But the question is, who are the American "people"? Sadly, the Supreme Court ruled in 1886 that a corporation is a person, with the same constitiutional rights as a human person. And as "people', corporations are immortal, incredibly wealthy, and exhibit psychopathic behavior.
So the American government, over the past 121 years, has increasingly represented primarily the corporate "people" who have all the bribe money, and relegated the human "people" to second-class status.
i believe earlier this week the MPAA, RIAA, and FBI were trying to educate the local south african tribal folk about internet privacy.
thank god i'm american i hate to be educated about priracy.