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Advice On File Sharing For a Swedish MP?

Posted by timothy on from the aim-high-use-both-barrels dept.

theper writes "A little over a week from now, I have a dinner planned with an old friend and a member of the Swedish parliament. I know a thing or two about the internet, piracy and file sharing, and she's asked for my advice on new legislation on that subject. Her (and her party's) stance is not very controversial: Rights holders must get paid one way or another, and at the same time record companies has to change their old business models and must do more to keep up with technology. With this kept in mind, what advice should I give her?"

4 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. Don't look at file sharing exclusively by Kwesadilo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    IANAL (in Sweden or anywhere else), but I imagine that illegal file sharing in Sweden is illegal because it is in violation of Sweden's copyright laws. If this is the case, then any changes that your friend tries to make to the law should address all of the behavior governed by copyright law, not just file sharing. Part of the reason that file sharing has been such a big issue is that, when it became commonplace, existing legislation was ill-suited to it. So we have vast numbers of people engaging in behavior that is generally considered to be illegal, and companies are suing many people that have, by most accounts, done nothing wrong.

    If you favor increased freedom to file share for consumers, then you should advocate increased freedom to share in general. New legislation should anticipate that new technologies will be created. That way, maybe there won't be another big mess twenty years from now.

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  2. Ask her a few questions. by Odder · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ask her how she thinks "pirates" can be shut down without interfering with legitimate traffic. Ask her if she knows about the recent Media Defender DoS. The *AAs, aka "rights holders", are criminals that continue to abuse laws to shut down all alternate distribution channels. Any power given to them will be abused in a similar way. From there you can move the discussion to the benefits of free publication and copyright reform.

  3. Re:You should tell her by Xemu · · Score: 5, Interesting

    the government shouldn't be responsible for sustaining someone's broken business model. The market should decide what that model should be and if a business can't adapt to changing market conditions, it deserves to die.


    And please show her this youtube'd old Rapport news broadcast from Swedish National Television. It's from the 70's and the music industry says they want a DISCO FEE because the new DISCO music is killing the [old] music industry. Sounds familiar? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdjcSGo1hJg

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  4. Re:not very controversial by skeeto · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Happy Birthday To You" is not in the public domain. The copyright holders make thousands (if not millions) of dollars off the song every year. From the Wikipedia article,

    The Summy Company registered for copyright in 1935, [...] Based on the 1935 copyright registration, Warner claims that US copyright won't expire until 2030, and that unauthorized public performances of the song are technically illegal unless royalties are paid to it.

    This is one of the really good examples of how messed up our copyright laws are. That's why I used it. An important part of our culture is locked up.