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Swedish Anti-Piracy Lawyer Gets New Name 'Pirate'

Posted by samzenpus on from the the-power-of-the-prank dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet (in Swedish) reports that Henrik Pontén, a lawyer of Antipiratbyrån, a Swedish organization against file sharing, has received a notification from officials that an application for change of his name has been approved and a new first name 'Pirate' has been added to his name. Authorities do not check the identity of persons applying for name changes. Pirate Pontén now has to apply for another change in order to revert the change."

9 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. it will only hurt the cause... by VMaN · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Horribly childish, and just gives the opposition more ammo, and reinforces the childish stereotype.

    But goddamn that's a brilliant prank.

    1. Re:it will only hurt the cause... by steeljaw · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Agreed, but even though it will be viewed as a cheap prank it is still quite clever. Not to mention the fact that it had me LMFAO!!

      --
      Procrastinators, Unite Tomorrow!!
    2. Re:it will only hurt the cause... by Rakshasa+Taisab · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, the guy can't both demand people have less personal information protection _AND_ demand people have more personal information protection.

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      - These characters were randomly selected.
    3. Re:it will only hurt the cause... by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't think speculation is pointless. We have one extremely unlikely possibility, and one extremely likely possibility. Saying speculation is pointless implies they are equally likely.

    4. Re:it will only hurt the cause... by Devout_IPUite · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you know a sense of humor is on your side in an argument, faking a crime to make the other side look childish is a compelling tactic. Do you really think the anti-piracy groups are too stupid to realize the potential?

      People can and do frame others for crimes. Scientologists have a long running history of it, I don't doubt that copy-right leachers (the people who make money off of other's copyrights without actually contributing anything) would try this same kind of thing.

    5. Re:it will only hurt the cause... by twidarkling · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't think it's blazingly hilarious, but if the system's letting anyone change anyone else's name because they're not bothering to check identities, then the system is broken. Simple as that. Better it's abused in such a fashion now, rather than something more serious, so that it can be fixed.

      --
      Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
  2. Who is he really now? by HorzaSe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wonder if he has to sign the request to revert his name, with "Pirate Ponten" for it to be considered?

  3. Re:'Bout damn time... by MikeBabcock · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My grandmother used to say "you may be right, you can be dead right."

    She said it in reference to a specific ancestor who got shot for taking back a saw that was his from a neighbour who borrowed and would not return it. Being right isn't everything in other words, sometimes being alive is good too.

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    - Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
  4. It Fits by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's a deserving moniker for someone who is hell-bent on stealing the public domain and "finding infringement" where none exists under Swedish law.

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."