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Pirate Bay Co-Founder In Solitary Confinement
pigrabbitbear writes "Things aren't looking awesome for Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm, who's currently under lock and key in a newly built jail about 15 minutes north of Stockholm. Svartholm's mother Kristina says that her 28-year-old son is being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day without any human contact other than his interactions with the guards. It's been nearly two months since Svartholm was arrested in Cambodia, where he'd been living for years, and extradited back to Sweden, where he's due to spend a year behind bars and pay a $1.1 million fine for copyright offenses related to his role at the Pirate Bay. But that's not why Sweden's being so tough on him in prison. Authorities believe he may have played a role in the hacking of Logica, a Swedish technology company with ties to the country's tax authorities. They haven't charged him with any crimes yet in that case, however."
As Fashion Nihilist said : Fuck you Stockholm !
Take that pixel thief
This is insane, why is a computer programmer under solitary confinement?
If so, then that would be crossing the line.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
So a man is languishing in solitary confinement for years, not allowed visitors, and is mistreated to a degree that if he were a prisoner of war it would be considered a war crime under the Geneva convention, without being charged, given a trial, or given an opportunity to defend himself... and when this man is finally released, they'll be sending him back to jail because he enabled people to download music and movies... and he's only in that country because of the aforementioned.
Does that seem right to you?
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
this guy offended power but didn't stay anonymous, so he was nailed
unless you are rich and powerful expect the machinery of society to be turned against you if you ever upset the rich and powerful
what we need is an anonymous, distributed internet
freenet and tor are both good starts but too hard to use for normal people
now is the time to start building it, when the regular people rely on the conveniences of the internet but don't yet feel the restrictions on their freedoms
if there is no alternative built by the time they do feel it and look for one then we will have lost
learn how to configure and run a freenet and tor node on an old computer in your house, throttle the bandwidth if you want to and don't run an exit node if that is scary
but run a node, you can be part of the solution
look at http://project-byzantium.org/ if you are feeling more adventurous
Really? Am I missing something about why this is necessary? Otherwise, it seems to be an act of vengeful spite or an unreasonable fear of computer technology?
Yesterday's Weirdness is Tomorrow's Reason Why
Logica is owned by CGI, it's canadian company now.
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
In other news, recent financial transcripts show record donations by both the RIAA and MPAA to Swedish re-election campaigns.
Then he would at least have gotten a trial.
But that's not why Sweden's being so tough on him in prison. Authorities believe he may have played a role in the hacking of Logica, a Swedish technology company with ties to the country's tax authorities.
What does it matter if there was another crime? Of course he should be tried and prosecuted if he committed a crime, but to give someone solitary confinement before he's even been charged for a non-violent crime seems completely excessive. If your justice system has people leaving it more dangerous and damaged when they came in, you are doing it wrong.
I suppose that not every country has an innocent until guilty system though, is this usual in Sweden?
In my experience, solitary was only used for dangerous or troublesome prisoners (where troublesome means doing anything apart from what the guards say so don't be a smartarse. Guards generally don't give a shit why you're in jail and are just looking for an uncomplicated day), suicide risks, initiation into the system (so you know what to expect if you step out of line), or for protection. Solitary is expensive so prison management don't like to over-use it.
Unless it's for protection, two months is an extraordinary amount of time to be there, though. For all of the other reasons for being in solitary, people usually buckle under and play the game fairly quickly so they can get back out into general.
One possible reason, they're trying to weaken his resolve to get some information out of him, and or he is combative and the prison wants a compliant prisoner.
Torrents are the modern day The Library of Alexandria.
By law, every book and scroll was copied.
It was critical for the development of civilization.
A golden age lasted until the christians and muslims destroyed it.
Don't let the plutocrats destroy our library!
hard to believe anything they say after watching how the swedish government acts.
Of course, he has not been charged with any crime, so "if so" would be an overstatement. I might as well say, "nurb432 decapitated a 12 year old girl and drank her blood? If so then that would be crossing the line."
(But you probably would not face as severe a punishment for that crime as for running something like TBP...)
Palm trees and 8
Am I the only one who finds it horrific to use intense psychological tactics like this in such a case? What sort of permanent damage might be caused by long term isolation like this? For what purpose? Is there some loss of life or other high impact event they hope to prevent by sweating information out of this guy? Geez.
Glad to see your government is doing what it is told. Good dog. Sit, stay.
Honestly everyone there should be up in arms angry as to how they are handling this. Why are you people doing my country's bidding?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
... Stockholm Syndrome.
Solitary confinement isn't same as in US prisons. First of all he isn't in a prison where it would be strange if he was held in solitary confinement. Everyone who gets 'häktad' is held in solitary confinement or the "red" ward until the prosecutor says otherwise or he is officially charged (i.e. "förundersökningssekretess" is released).
I've been myself confined in solitary for 2 months, where 2 weeks were voluntary. It's good times and way better than sharing a cell with some douche bags and being able to relax because the psycho in your cell is about to get a psychosis and can't take being locked in.
In solitary confinement you get bed, PRIVACY, tv (if officially charged, or prosecutor allows i.e. after giving your sworn statement), table, toilet, water, foodstuff, books and library visit, paper and pen, access to phone (with permission of prosecutor), training room, shower, and so on. It's not the american "solitary confinement" nor is it to punish you, it's way more costly, and they try to put you into "GREEN" ward asap. After that you'll be sent to prison where there is place for you, and if you are unlucky, you get to be 3 or more in one cell.
There is a different type of solitary confinement that I doubt Gottfried is put in, and they usually only exist in prisons and people dangerous to themselves.
BTW, I never been to prison. Just accused of crap. Gottfried should be happy he is put in "häkte" because when he goes to prison he'll love the solitary confinement benefits. Only negative is of course that you only get to meet the wardens and a few people the prosecutor wetted before letting them see you (and they can be friends not necessarily family).
It isn't that hard to see the reason is pure vindictiveness on the part of (monied) rights holders, exercising their purchased cronies in world government.
If you followed the press releases surrounding the pirate bay, and bothered to read their "legal threats" page before they were busted, you would know that the founders of the pirate bay frequently and bluntly told the large media companies to go fuck themselves with collapsable metal batons. (And even gave suggestions about which ones were of superior quality.)
[No seriously. They really did.]
This tidbit was alluded to discreetly by various media groups covering the trial, since their peers had made open complaints to the court about the group's lack of tact and seeming lack of seriousness, demanding harsher punishments. (Essentially, they didn't like being told to go fuck themselves, and wanted the court system to use 'harsher' punishments, because they were butt-hurt over it, illistrating their own lack of professionalism in the matter.)
The outright illegal raid on PB servers, followed by the dubious cambodian extradition to sweden, and the endless trail of clearly damning evidence of government corruption in the case pretty clearly sums it up.
Do I think the guy is a hero? Certainly not. Is he getting unfairly punished in proportion to his crimes? Oh yes, certainly. Is it due to government corruption? The evidence is pretty damning...
What is he really guilty of that they want to punish him so severely?
He threatened their hegemony, and was shamelessly unafrad of him. They can't stand that, and want to use him as a poster child to instill fear in people that would be like him, and flaunt their authority.
More than anything, I'd say he is a political prisoner, on par with what the russians do routinely.
He'd gotten a 100 SK fine and a slap on the wrist !! Stupid punk had to go and infringe copyright !! What a dumbass !! Moral: if you want to steal, steal real, tangible stuff !!
If you flout their rules, AND THEY CATCH YOU, expect to find yourself in solitary confinement.
Moral of the story: don't get caught.
-or-
Have sensible rules.
Futurist Traditionalism
It's like people invent computers and then decide to throw out justice in the process...
The act of caging any individual without a high probability of recidivism, is essentially spite. It is a form of archaic, wanton penalization probably not even presumed to have any preventive or rehabilitative effect past its end. More practical would be an imposed condition for a ruled duration that would make repeating the crime wildly unlikely or impossible -- preferably while improving rather than weakening the subject. A cage is an efficient method of preventing people from doing anything that cannot be done in a cage with the limited resources at hand. Under typical conditions beyond basic toiletries and tattered books (if they are so lucky), such resources are their own forms and little more, thus leaving violence, idleness and anticipation of food as the majority of very few options. Solitary confinement might actually be more widely practiced for the betterment of society, but only for the violent or voluntary. Otherwise, it makes little sense unless one thinks like a criminal their self.
I have never observed any value (beyond monetary) in caging anyone who poses no imminent threat to themselves or society. However, as displayed by the practice, it is not ethics that guide such tyrannical policies; it is often pettiness, laziness, or profit. The cage is the gangrene that handicaps society -- by placing problems out of sight and out of mind, sweeping them under the carpet to fester and haunt us any time but now. But it haunts us now despite.
Of course the answer to this comes from the very fiends who cultivate this gangrenous rot. In the US especially, prison-labor is on the rise like never before. Next time you eat your potatoes, you might ponder what crime the man who harvested them committed.
Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
And this is exactly the reason why Julian Assange is so (wisely) set against being extradited to Sweden.
I've spent time in jail. Maybe Swedish jail is different (ie, instead of blacks and hispanics, they have muslims) but solitary confinement is preferable to the alternative. Because the alternative is sucking dick and hanging out with the kind of people that are in jail.
I could never imagine how fast will the "content industry" bring upon us a totalitarian, corporatist dystopia. The US is pushing for extradition of people who engaged in copying - not violent attacks, not murder, not kidnapping, not arms or drugs dealing, no, nothing but fucking COPYING copyrighted content.
The only thing more alarming is the great majority of sheeple, I mean people, watching all this and going "oh well, I guess Bono's got to buy food, too". Pathetic.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
maybe solitary is a bit much, but we do not know the circumstances. all we have is a moms word. i am not saying shes a liar, but if their police are like our police....
Don't fuck with big corporations.
You get thrown in jail and the key thrown away.
The upside-down world: a co-founder of Pirate Bay is in solitary, but the guys who stole $18 trillion in the 2007-08 economic collapse scam are running around free and using their cash to influence the US election.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Due process has already been avoided. By the government trying to get him extradited.
He hasn't been held for months yet alone years. He _is_ allowed visitors (but like anyone in jail while a crime is being investigated, he's not allowed any number of visits from just anyone). He's not being mistreated. He's got a TV, books, he can buy newspapers and candy and whatnot from the kiosk once a week. He _has_ been charged, and he _has_ been in court and had the opportunity to challenge the reasons for his incarceration. He's being held in the exact same cells under the exact same conditions that people in Swedish jails are held under, pending trial.
This treatment is a clear violation of his human rights. Sweden state should be sued over this treatment to ECJ. Since Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is part of Lisbon Treaty that Sweden has agreed to. I am not sure where the first one might be sued to. But that might be European Court of Human Rights.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Convention_on_Human_Rights
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_Fundamental_Rights_of_the_European_Union
With what i know about this mans meth addiction, getting him extradicted from Cambodia and shipped home before he does himself over was a pretty nice thing to do for him.. Contrary to popular belief..
would have approved of anyone hacking the tax man!
66
Remember, the death penalty for hacking has been seriously discussed [nytimes.com]. If such a discussion can be considered serious.
99
He is being punished harshly by reason of the leverage that hacking offers. It's like planting nuclear charges in just to right spots on Cumbre Vieja to slide that part of the island into the ocean to flood out the North American East Coast.
That court decision was made during the socialist autarky period of India. Equality before the law is socialism in/of the judiciary. The world can no longer afford that any more. It's UNSUSTAINABLE!
Solitary confinement for commission of white collar crimes seems beyond the pale--and even more so before conviction.
23/7 Solitary Confinement is cruel and unusual, and designed with the express purpose of torturing an inmate into submission.
How any court can hold that "segregation" is compatible with the 8th Amendment is beyond me, and I would think that Europe would be much farther long in eliminating such punishment.
Democracy doesn't actually exist. It's no more than a facade to cloak what is essentially advanced feudalism: the self-preservation of the ruling powerful at the expense of the peasants. Democracy exists in name only; only as far as is needed to keep us proles from becoming organized and revolting.
The rich and the powerful who put the enforcers up to task via translucent bribes to the ruling class are no more virtuous than those they accuse of infringement. Copyright is not a moral proposition; no one is directly, physically or mortally harmed by duplicating a sequence of 1s and 0s. The only perceived harm is completely imagined by the rights-holders because they have exploited their power by rearranging the world to lock up the yields of culture and share it with only those who are deemed financially worthy to obtain it. Culture is not just for those who can afford it, culture is humanity and it is for everyone.
Every time the peasantry stands up to the powerful, the powerful continue to further the rule of law to sustain their power in giant game of whack-a-mole, and the moles are us. Honestly, do we really need *anything* in the text of law beyond murder, rape, assault and theft? Is not anything else simply an assertion of the powerful to sustain and increase their own power?
the guy should rot for allowing child molestation advocacy websites to exist
the new U$A whore.
Nation States are moving swiftly to instrument USA style Rendition, Torture and Murder Facilities across the globe.
Look like this one has landed in such a 'New" Rendition Center.
As deplorable as these new Rendition Centers are, they do serve a valuable purpose.
The purpose is to provide Pedophiles a safe and secure work environment provided by the 'State'.
This allows Pedophiles to 'Be All They Can Be' and not be sexual predators on the city and country streets of the 'States'.
As such the pedophiles of the 'States', a King and a Queen, a Prime Minister and a 'President' enjoy their fantasies without ... Succulent Meats.
drudgery or bothering or hunting. Their 'States' are all too eager to supply them with
A sad statement on the value of Home Sapiens and its organizations. :(
But that's not why Sweden's being so tough on him in prison. Authorities believe he may have played a role in the hacking of Logica, a Swedish technology company with ties to the country's tax authorities. They haven't charged him with any crimes yet in that case, however."
Oh, I see- on the SUSPICION he MIGHT have done something to fuck with your tax system, he deserves solitary confinement. Has he been charged with such? NO. Has he been convicted of such? NO. They just think he did it. ASSHOLES. FUCK YOU. Get off your knees and stop sucking the MPAA and RIAA's dick.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
This is the thing about computers. Anyone who seems to know anything about them - extensively - seems to be considered a fatal threat to the establishment. Look at the long history of hackers locked up for no reason other than demonstrating knowledge. Hackers, within their own domain, believe they are free to learn whatever they want. The reality is contrary, the establishment comes down with the boot like the gestapo in great fury just to make the point that knowledge is not free and is incredibly dangerous to their security whenever anyone demonstrates any critical aptitude with the great mystery that are computers.
I expect Sweden to rise up in arms for such injustice; or at least raise their voices until justice is upheld!
or?...
This is exactly what they did to Francis Scott Key.
I wondered why, on waking up thus morning, I felt safer - as if a great threat had been removed from the world. Well done, Sweden, and may I compliment your recent applications of extradition. I know Ben Stiller can rely upon you to execute international justice if anyone should slate his movies.
-- Using the preview button since 2005
But that's not why Sweden's being so tough on him in prison.
Authorities believe he may have played a role in the hacking of Logica, a
Swedish technology company with ties to the country's tax authorities.
Yes, but why Sweden is being so tough on him in prison? Is he acting violently towards other inmates? Does he need protection from the other inmates? Are there vulnerable computer networks with a sweet Layer 1, serving time and being very afraid of the leet hacking powers he possesses? Or are the Swedish officials just breaking their national laws relating to the Swedish Prison and Probation Service?
Funny how when ordinary people go to this jail it's touted as a luxury prison, while when a hacker celebrity goes there it's shockingly grim and inhuman... and really, Svartholm isn't getting any special treatment, he's getting the same thing as many others in the same situation (that is: under investigating and awaiting trial).
http://www.takepart.com/photos/worlds-most-luxurious-prisons/sollentuna-prison-sweden