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Sweden Returns Passport To Pirate Bay Co-Founder
An anonymous reader writes "In August, Piratebay co-founder Fredrik Neij had his Swedish passport revoked by the Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok. After an appeal the revocation was dismissed [Saturday], with a ruling that the embassy cannot take away his passport. The full ruling can be read here."
The industry has spent ridiculous amounts of money trying to take ThePirateBay down, and it's still up and running. Even if they take it down, people will find other websites; not to mention that they'll have wasted billions in their efforts to take it down. Instead of doing that, they could focus on treating their actual customers well.
Do you really think THAT Jack Thompson would be using Photoshop CS6??
Jack Thompson is an incredibly uncommon name though so I get your point. However my guess it was someone more arty-farty like Jack Thompson (actor).
You don't have to go full conspiracy mode to see patterns of misconduct and odd legal choices in the Piratebay, Assange, and Megaupload cases.
Whether its the US Government or the **AA, someone has been exerting significant outside pressure.
It's a shame that the USA was built on principles of democracy and due process, but chooses to influence foreign events in ways that are contrary to those founding principles.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I would have modded you up, but I have my doubts about your theory, so I'll take the moderation hit and respond instead.
The image file name suggests what exactly?
logo15_gtabin.png ???
It doesn't suggest anything to me, except that it's some type of logo that's placed on some kind of tab.
Even if the name Jack Thomson does appear within the metadata of the image, which I haven't checked, but assuming that's what you meant. I can indeed believe that such a name would appear there. Jack Thompson is indeed a very common name. Not only that, but if the person used cracked software to edit the picture, or a cracked OS underlying their image editing software, it's also very possible that they used the name of a person they didn't like when they first registered such software, or OS. For instance, I could easily see someone use the name George W. Bush to register some cracked software, or even use the name Barack Obama.
Would not revokation of passport imply that he is no longer a Swedish citizen? Or at least that the Swedish government will not support or help one of their own citizens?
It has been a trend going back from... war against Spain I guess. It is effectively the US standard operating procedure against anyone who dont have a nuke capability.
Tomorrow is another day...
Could this just be a bad pun? GTA Bin - i.e throw GTA into the Waste Bin.
For those not reading Swedish, the reason of dismissing the revocation is (as far as I understand it) simply that as a citizen you are allowed to know the reason for a decision (with some few exceptions), which wasn't done in this case. So the dismissal is, in itself, not saying that the decision was wrong, only that it was formally incorrect.
You can read the law here.
http://www.notisum.se/rnp/sls/lag/19860223.HTM (google translate needed).
And the relevant section is (in my sloppy translation):
20 Ett beslut varigenom en myndighet avgör ett ärende skall innehålla de skäl som har bestämt utgången, om ärendet avser myndighetsutövning mot någon enskild. Skälen får dock utelämnas helt eller delvis
20 A decision by which an agency decides a case must contain the reasons which determined the outcome, if the matter concerns public authority against any individual. The reasons may be omitted completely or partially
1. if the decision is not against any party or if for any other reason it is obviously unnecessary to disclose the reasons,
2 if the decision relates to appointments, admission to voluntary training, grading, allocation of research grants or something comparable,
3 if it is necessary in the interests of national security, protection of an individual's personal or financial circumstances or any comparable circumstance,
4 if the matter is so urgent that there is time to design the grounds, or
5 if the case concerns the communication of regulations referred to in Chapter 8. Government law and it is not a question of review by a higher court on appeal.
Have reasons been omitted, the authority at the request of the party, should if possible, inform him about them afterwards.
I always wonder about the repercussions when government officials abuse their power and the law, such as in this case (or the illegal spying of Kim DotCom). After all, they were recognized to have committed illegal actions.
When civilians commit illegal actions, there is usually damages, reparation, or even jail. Why are government bureaucrats able to get away with it (or with just an apology)?
These comments are mine; I do not speak for my employer.
Why are we being directed to some sort of site that requires mobile phone number entry
Could some Slashdot guy download the ruling and host it locally on Slashdot ? Judicial rulings are public domain so there's no copyright issues.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
The USA is the land of the free, everyone else better lookout though, their foreign policy's a bitch.
There are none for government bureaucrats - they get to hide behind governmental immunity; and the government gets to decide when-and-if this immunity gets lifted.
There really needs to be a separate organization, perhaps a citizens' tribunal, that can be called to independently review situations like this. Government bureaucrats should be held personally liable, if they demonstrably abuse their authority.
It's a shame that the USA was built on principles of democracy and due process
According to my interpretation of various news articles over the past decade there is a steady process working on removing the principles of democracy and due process from the USA. And there certainly were enough bad choices mixed in among all the great things the USA did in the 20th century.
Don't get me wrong. This isn't anti-americanism. I'm just concerned to see a highly developed, democratic nation which achieved quite a lot of nice things to degenerate slowly.
I'd very much prefer to see you guys repair that damage.
It has been a trend going back...
to when Europeans first landed on the shores. To misquote, The US has always been at war. The 'democracy' and 'due process' was reserved for rich white males. To a lessor extent, it still holds true today with the war on drugs and various other discriminatory laws.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
To a lessor extent, it still holds true today with the war on drugs and various other discriminatory laws.
if you are rich and you want fun drugs you just shop for a doc who will write you any scrip you want, and then you pay through the nose to get high on designer pills.
we used to have a guy who did that here in Lake county, they even called him Dr. Feelgood. But now he's a weed scrip pimp. No, really, had a billboard for "physician's recommendations" with him in the middle in a suit and four sluts arrayed around him. I imagine they're more prevalent in states other than California.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
well, politicians don't come cheap, so it is probably a big number. However that buys multiple agendas, so I doubt TPB is he only one.
Yes, actually, you do have to go "full conspiracy mode." When did slashdot become a gathering place for conspiracy theorists? Most comments in this thread seem to be a half step away from the intellectual equivalent of Creationism. Your arguments are only supported by your political beliefs. How exactly did the USA "influence" Swedish and Kiwi government employees? Was it mind control? Did they use HAARP?
Since when does slashdot have enemies? Here I thought it was a news aggregation / discussion board site, but come to find out theres a list of those to be shunned?
This mentality illustrates how digg went down the drain, and why slashdot could easily end up there.
Perhaps its Jack Bauer in disguise?
You can't be serious? You didn't actually think the Swedish government would be using [The Pirate] Bay Files to distribute their documents? Hehe, come on!
The Swedes operate more nuclear plants than most countries in the region and have since 1947...
Now, they don't have nuclear weapons, but that's by choice as they hardly seem necessary with peaceful neighbors and an overwhelming Russian force next door.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Sweden
Well, for the New Zealand government it was promises of trade agreements and closer relations.