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Leaked Cable Shows Heavy US Influence On Swedish Copyright Policy

Posted by Unknown on from the pass-a-copyright-law-rover-good-boy dept.

Debuting on Slashdot, seezer writes with a piece by Rick Falkvinge about a recently release diplomatic cable. From the article: "Among the treasure troves of recently released WikiLeaks cables, we find one whose significance has bypassed Swedish media. In short: every law proposal, every ordinance, and every governmental report hostile to the net, youth, and civil liberties here in Sweden in recent years have been commissioned by the U.S. government and industry interests." This is from a Pirate Party founder and so might be slightly exaggerated, but there is certainly evidence in the cable that the U.S. exerted quite a bit of influence of Swedish copyright law. The U.S. government appears particularly vexed that the Swedish public doesn't seem to think anything is wrong with copying protected works, and (not unexpectedly) was quite concerned that Pirate Party members might actually be elected.

5 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Democracy by geoffaus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yep the U.S. are all for promoting democracy around the world except when people might vote for someone they dont like

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    As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a reference to Godwin's Law approaches 1
  2. Is there now any doubt on Assange ? by mbone · · Score: 4, Interesting

    After reading this, does anyone doubt that the indictment on Julian Assange was motivated by US interests ?

  3. Dear Media Companies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The spirit of copyright was to protect the authors for a limited amount of time in return for the works to fall into public domain after a fixed, limited amount of time.

    You screwed everyone by effectively removing the public domain part of the copyright idea, so we're screwing you out of the protected part.

  4. Re:You ain't heard nothing yet... by polar+red · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The IRS making US citizens pay their taxes ? the nerve !

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    Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
  5. Define "defending copyright" by tepples · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The US position defending copyright is the correct position.

    By "defending copyright" do you mean to include "defending repeated extensions to the term of copyright" and "defending the narrowing of fair use, first sale, and other limitations on the scope of copyright" and "defending copyright even when the owner of copyright in a particular work cannot be determined with reasonable research"?