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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."

19 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 Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      There is also the possibility that he did this too himself, nobody knows since who ever changed his name is anonymous.

      And know this, the news article was published on the day before the Swedish election. Very suspicious timing by the anti-piracy agency here...

    2. Re:it will only hurt the cause... by serutan · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Or we could admit that speculation either way is pointless. People do fake crimes, and Occam's Razor != knowing.

    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 BaronHethorSamedi · · Score: 4, Interesting

      But goddamn that's a brilliant prank.

      In my mind, this is actually a little beyond childish prank territory.

      To all you folks who are going to write in with "ZOMG LMAO! Grow a sense of humor!" and so on, ask yourselves: would a straight-up act of identity theft be as funny if it were aimed at an anti-copyright lobbyist? This isn't a prank--the man's signature was forged on an official document, and then (apparently) submitted to the Swedish tax authorities. I don't know about Sweden, but in the U.S. that's pretty heavily criminal conduct.

    6. Re:it will only hurt the cause... by cffrost · · Score: 5, Funny

      ZOMG LMAO! Grow a sense of humor!

      --
      Thank you, Edward Snowden.

      "Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
    7. Re:it will only hurt the cause... by Mr.+Freeman · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They weren't fraudulent wire transfers, idiot. They were perfectly legitimate, small value transfers. It just so happened that there was a processing fee greater than the value of the intended transfer amount. Furthermore, Occam razor doesn't mean jack shit. "The simplest solution is USUALLY correct". It doesn't mean that the simplest solution is ALWAYS correct.

      It's perfectly legitimate to suspect that this guy did this himself to make the pirate party look more childish and discredit them. We've seen the anti-piracy fucks do weirder, stupider and more far fetched things in the past.

      --
      -1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
    8. 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. 'Bout damn time... by geekmux · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...a lawyer was honest enough to carry this title.

    (ducks for cover)

    1. 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.

      --
      - Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
    2. Re:'Bout damn time... by AioKits · · Score: 5, Funny

      Does this mean NYCL gets to change his first name to Badass?

      Badass Beckerman does have a nice ring to it...

      --
      "Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
  3. 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?

    1. Re:Who is he really now? by nicolas.kassis · · Score: 4, Funny

      he can just make an X

  4. And yet transsexuals cannot change gender freely by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In Sweden if you're trans and want to change to a name of the different gender you need approval from social servcies, which among other things requires you are sterile. Yet a lawyer can add "Pirate" to his first name without the agencies even checking the identity of the applicant. Hurra fÃr myndigheter!

  5. The last line of TFA... by vigmeister · · Score: 4, Interesting

    mentions an official stating his name will be reverted "in due time"

    What are they waiting for? Oh! That's right... an anonymous application!

    On the note of applications, this article will probably precipitate a flood of similar immature requests. Maybe the department should suspend applications for a short while until appropriate changes in the procedure are put in place. Hopefully, it doesn't require any legislation and is simply a directive from some official to change the policies.

    Cheers!

    --
    Atheist: Buddhist in a Prius
  6. Dear Mr. Ponten by should_be_linear · · Score: 4, Funny

    We regret our mistake not verifying your identity when accepting name change to "Pirate". Your original name "HotLolitazWarez Ponten" is restored. Sincerely, Mr. Foo Bar Sweden department of anonymous name change

    --
    839*929
  7. Re:Someone should by Bunji+X · · Score: 4, Funny

    Even more funny (or tragic) is the reason they found him guilty. Losely translated from my memory:

    "The defendant has such peculiar looks that the court finds it unlikely that any young woman would willingly have sex with him."

    I agree with the stand up comedian that later stated, "It must be hard having a court judgement declaring that you *are* ugly". No question about it. No doubts. You are legally declared ugly.

    --
    ---
    The combined human population is enough to feed every living tiger for app. 28000 years.
  8. Pirate? by Alex+Belits · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wouldn't it make more sense to change it to "Ninja"?

    --
    Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.