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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.
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
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.
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
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.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
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!
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.