‘Pirate’ arrest in Sweden
p2pnet news view | P2P | Music:- “Who’s willing to bet this is going to be treated more serious that the [money] counterfeiting ring that was recently busted in Sweden?” – asks a comment poster to a story in The Local which kicks off:
“A 33-year-old man from VästerÃ¥s in central Sweden has been arrested for alleged crimes in breach of copyright legislation. Local media report that police uncovered up to 10,000 films hidden in the man’s cellar.”
Big content, “has Sweden’s law services by the short and curlies and wants to make an example of people like this heinous/crime mastermind/dastardly/ young man,” says eZee.se over in Sweden. (He’s not unknown on p2pnet either. 
)
“Making fake money … thats not to bad, depriving the cartels of money via movies and music… thats a big NO NO.”
Stealing a CD or DVD
The penalties involved in file sharing are so far out of sight of reality they border on extreme science fiction.
Hollywood and the Big 4 music labels like to compare file sharing with stealing a CD or DVD directly off a store shelf.
Which is what Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s RIAA accused Jammie Thomas-Rasset and Joel Tenenbaum of doing.
After a farcical civil court case, Jamie was ordered to find almost $2 million for allegedly sharing a handful of songs online. Joel was told to cough up $675,000 for supposedly doing the same thing.
“On ’stealing’ a CD, a la the Big 4 and their RIAA, p2pnet quoted Gapers Block as saying, “Retail theft of less that $150 (which is like, what, 10 CD’s?) is a Class A misdemeanor. The penalty? Up to one year in jail and/or a fine of $2,500. At most you’d be down about $52,500. Definitely manageable. If it exceeds $150 though, you’re in for a Class 3 felony. That bad boy will result in two to five years in prison and/or a $25,000 fine, so you’re risking approximately $275,000.
“Beats $2 million though, huh?”
Back in Sweden, “VästerÃ¥s police were acting on a tip off from the Swedish Anti-Piracy Agency (Svenska AntipiratbyrÃ¥n-APB), a private copyright advocacy group,” according to The Local, which also has infamous APB mouthpiece Henrik Pontén (right) stating:
“We regard the man to be one of the leading figures behind the ‘warez scene’ syndicate which is responsible for all pirate copying. The police operation will help to stem the flow of pirated material onto the internet.”
‘All’ pirate copying, eh? That’s quite an allegation, even for ‘Bullshit’ Pontén.
He also promised, “the man will be served with a demand for compensation, with the amount based on the stock of 10,000 films,” says the story.
In another The Local comment post, “He was from the Warez scene so is very unlikely to of been selling what he was collecting,” says EngGent.
“To do so would lead to his ostracisation from his own community.
“Sounds to me like he was a ‘dump’, a place that a group would backup and store all of the material they have pirated over the years. I wonder what legal arguments that will be used in this case. Is widespread sharing of copyrighted material the biggest crime, is large scale ownership the crime? Is it the organised approach that these groups take the crime? If he is merely a conduit for the material is he at all liable or is he protected by the same EU laws that protect ISPs from being legally liable for their user’s actions?”
Stay tuned.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
The Local – Swede caught with 10,000 films in file sharing raid, August 26, 2009
p2pnet – RIAA Copyright Crime vs Child Abduction, August 23, 2009
Gapers Block – Seven Crimes to Consider Before Music Piracy, August 17, 2009
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August 28th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
His real name is Pirate Ponten.