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Anti-Piracy Bureau of Sweden Planted Evidence

Posted by Zonk on Tue Mar 22, 2005 05:22 PM
from the sure-fire-way-to-crack-the-case dept.
Privacy Government The Courts The Internet News
American Sweden writes "Concerning the bust at the Swedish ISP Bahnhof on March 10, IDG Sweden is reporting that Bahnhof has posted their findings of an internal inspection. It seems as if the Anti-Piracy Buereau of Sweden and their infiltrator "Rouge" had a good deal of involvement in supporting the busted FTP server not only with hardware but with so called "warez" as well. The blog of Lars Backlund has a translated version of the interview conducted in the report of Bahnhof." P2PNet.net has a breakdown of the relevant details as well. From the article: "As it turns out, APB (or, rather, their hired informer) supplied the servers and uploaded copyrighted materials. So that's why they were so sure to find stuff, they put it there!"
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  • On this occasion... (Score:5, Funny)

    by brouski (827510) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:24PM (#12016734)
    I think an "OH SNAP!" is appropriate.

  • Only in America.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by EmbeddedJanitor (597831) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:24PM (#12016739)
    Oh, wait...

  • ah-HA !! (Score:5, Funny)

    by jpiggot (800494) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:24PM (#12016741)
    So THAT explains why all those bootleg "ABBA" records were on that server !!

    Man, it's always the innocent and blond that suffer.

  • Just a thought (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:24PM (#12016744)
    Keep this in mind the next time anyone suggests any kind of plan by which a government may keep escrow keys for other people's cryptographic systems...

    Or the next time a government defends about imprisoning someone without a trial, or holding tribunal-style trials where the evidence presented judicial decisions are not subject to public scrutiny...

    • Re:Just a thought (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:28PM (#12016796)
      Well, I don't disagree with you. But I feel that it would be appropriate to point out that APB is not a government organization. It's just some people that are paid by various companies, and thus APB hasn't got any more rights than anyone else here.

      • Re:Just a thought (Score:5, Insightful)

        by dgatwood (11270) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:45PM (#12016991) Journal
        So here's an interesting legal issue. If an organization duly authorized by the copyright owner to help manage their copyrights places a copy of the copyrighted material on a public warez server, it seems to me that this legally qualifies as free public distribution by the copyright owner.

        So the question then becomes whether such a distribution is sufficient to have the movies in question declared to be in the public domain.... Thoughts?

        • So the question then becomes whether such a distribution is sufficient to have the movies in question declared to be in the public domain.... Thoughts?

          Why the hell would it do that? Do you live in the pre-1978 era or something?

            • Did you read... (Score:5, Informative)

              by Kjella (173770) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @06:31PM (#12017447) Homepage
              ..the sig of the person you're correcting? "(...) I am a lawyer. (...)"

              Copyrights must be defended. Failing to do so means you lose your copyright.

              Copyright does not have to be defended. Patents and trademarks must be. If you are careless with your copyright *notices*, it may exempt violators from liability. However, most any software/movie etc is full of copyright notices. As long as it is clearly marked as copyrighted, nothing can undo it nor the liabilities.

              Kjella

            • Re:Just a thought (Score:4, Informative)

              by roystgnr (4015) <roystgnr.ticam@utexas@edu> on Tuesday March 22 2005, @06:31PM (#12017451) Homepage
              Copyrights must be defended. Failing to do so means you lose your copyright.

              No, you're thinking of trademarks.

              By intentionally placing a copyrighted work into an area in which it can be used freely and not placing such use under the protections of a license, a very good argument can be made that the copyright owner is not practicing due diligence in the defense of their copyright and the copyright is then no longer valid.

              Not anymore. There were indeed laws to the effect of "keeping your copyright requires attaching a copyright notice every time you distribute", and in fact IIRC this was one of AT&T's big problems in their anti-BSD lawsuit, but today (since the Berne Convention?) everything copyrightable you create is automatically copyrighted, and nothing other than an explicit license from the creator can waive those rights.

        • In what legal theory? (Score:5, Informative)

          by Kjella (173770) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @06:04PM (#12017202) Homepage
          a) A license (or broader: "authorization") to distribute freely, does not imply a change in its copyright status. See BSD, GPL or any other license.

          b) By default distribution and reproduction are exclusive rights of the copyright holder. Even if you legally download it (signing no license at all), none of those rights have been given to you.

          Perhaps you should read 5 of the GPL (it applies equally well to any other software without a license):

          "You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License."

        • Re:Just a thought (Score:5, Insightful)

          by v1 (525388) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @06:55PM (#12017715) Homepage Journal
          That'd be a bit like driving your car to the bad end of town, and leaving it there with the engine running and door open. Technically the car isn't free for the taking, (it's still your car) though it'd be easy to argue for entrapment.
    • You mean you're not shocked, shocked, by this abuse of power? I wonder how "COINTELPRO" is pronounced in Swedish...

  • Rouge? (Score:3, Funny)

    by AAeyers (857625) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:26PM (#12016762) Journal
    It seems as if the Anti-Piracy Buereau of Sweden and their infiltrator "Rouge" had a good deal of involvement in supporting the busted FTP server not only with hardware but with so called "warez" as well.

    "Rouge"?
    "warez"?

    CowboyNeal?!

  • "warez" (Score:5, Funny)

    by pablonhd (797579) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:26PM (#12016768)
    So called "warez" ? "warez" did all this software come from? From Anti-Piracy Buereau of Sweden of course! What you pun?

  • Found _something_ (Score:5, Informative)

    by eddy (18759) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:27PM (#12016777) Homepage Journal

    >So that's why they were so sure to find stuff, they put it there!

    Well, the fun part is that they actually did not find the stuff they were looking for (specified to the court), and IIRC, they didn't even find the servers they were looking for.

  • Not only planting evidence... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by spaeschke (774948) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:28PM (#12016790)
    It also sounds like entrapment. "Hey, can we be in your scene?!? Here's some 133t zero day games!" sounds a lot like "Hey honey, you working? $50 if you show me a good time."
    • That sure is entrapment, sure you can say "she could have sold her services elsewhere" but its still an IF, and you cannot predict the future. You cannot say with 100% sure chance that person would have sold to someone else. This aint precrime tomcruise world.

      And if the cops are so sure person X would have done it, then they could have easily just waited till they did, or are they that lazy and fat?

      OT, if she only reads you poems thats not illegal, so why should something else that cant be taxed not be le

  • Hmm... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:31PM (#12016823)
    This might all be a misstatement. If you follow the link and download the logs, you see he had access for 2yrs and was uploading and downloading a lot of stuff. Now the question we should be asking is... how LONG was he an informant?

    Meaning, maybe he was a kid busted for warez, and the police offered him a deal (no jail time in return for access to the server). So the end result may be that he was working for the police, but he wasn't in fact the police.

    If that's the case, then I don't think the argument of planting evidence is going to work.

    • Re:Hmm... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:39PM (#12016906)
      Meaning, maybe he was a kid busted for warez, and the police offered him a deal (no jail time in return for access to the server). So the end result may be that he was working for the police, but he wasn't in fact the police.

      1) Police don't make deals. Procecutors do.

      2) Swedish procecutor's do not. It's an american practice.

      3) The guy wasn't working for law enforcement. He recived payment from the 'anti piracy bureau' which is not a law-enforcement or government agency, but rather the Swedish equivalent of the MPAA/RIAA.

      If that's the case, then I don't think the argument of planting evidence is going to work.

      Entrapment isn't legal even if the police do it. It certainly isn't legal when a private citizen does it.

  • Off Topic : How to pronoune "warez" (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:31PM (#12016830)
    I used to work with a guy who had the worst command of English ever. What made this more perplexing was that it was his native tongue. Anyway, we developed a lexicon of terms that he couldn't pronounce.

    Alias? "Uh lie us".
    Executable? "Egg ZEK you table"
    Egregious? "Eee gruh gare eee us" (like e-gregarious")

    Anyway, his most..er.. egregious offense was when he came across the term "0day warez." We were at lunch talking about software or something else nerdy and he mentioned "Oday Juarez" (oh-day war ezz). I thought he was talking about an Iraqi-Mexican immigrant that had just started at work or something.

    No. He read 0day warez as "Oday Juarez."

    If I ever sign up for a Slashdot account, Oday Juarez is going to be my nick.

  • Rouge? (Score:3, Funny)

    by damiangerous (218679) <1ndt7174ekq80001@sneakemail.com> on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:33PM (#12016842)
    Really? The informer went by the name rouge [answers.com]? That's pretty funny, and points out the hazards of trying to use a language in which you aren't native just because it sounds/looks cool. Kinda like those people who get random Chinese characters tattooed on them.

    • Re:Rouge? (Score:3, Informative)

      by mottie (807927)
      it also means red in french. not everyone uses english when they pick their alias. i've seen a lot worse

  • people want to jump to the wrong conclusion (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Auckerman (223266) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:35PM (#12016864)
    So some guy sets up a warez server in a computer lab. At least one of his friends that he has known for four years gets involved. For some reason, guy decides to busy his own warez server. Suspicious, yes. Worth investigating, certainly. Entrapment, probably not, unless it can be shown that he set up and maintained the server under the auspices of the legal authorities.

  • The news from piratbyran.org... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Jugalator (259273) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:36PM (#12016869) Journal
    They're saying that the hired infiltrator had retrieved and shared the most part of all games and movies released during 2004. To gain more space for all copies, the infiltrator had even bought and sent hardware for a total of SEK 20,000 ($2,800). In the beginning of March, he was supposed to send hard drives totalling at 800 GB, however the raid came in between.

    Even worse, this raid was part supported by STIM, an organization partially funded by the swedish government.

  • In the US, the ISP could sue for damages (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mveloso (325617) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:38PM (#12016890)
    In the US, the ISP could sue for damages, and there's a good chance the APB would settle for a large sum.

    Can they do that in Sweden? Or are they just going to get a "so sorry, we'll be sure it doesn't happen again (until next time)?"

    • Rather different system... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Kjella (173770) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @06:15PM (#12017304) Homepage
      Our liability figures are low here in Scandinavia, so it probably wouldn't be worth the effort by itself. Right now, this is mostly a PR disaster. It does have some very interesting criminal prosecution possibilities though, all Bahnhof needs to do is to press charges. From there the public justice system would drag APB through court, and Bahnhof would have a walk-over in civil court afterwards. That is much more common here.
  • I veell seenk yuoor sheep und ploonder yuoor buuty und peellege-a yuoor vumee. Avast, yuoor feelleges und buets veell feer. Hurty flurty schnipp schnipp! Arrrghh. I vurk vurk vurk und em keelhaul zee scuoorge-a ooff zee ooceuns. Um gesh dee vork vork vork!

  • Another interesting misshap made by APB. (Score:5, Informative)

    by hpj (26910) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @06:19PM (#12017335) Homepage
    On another note a on misshaps that the totally out of control Swedish APB has made is that they managed to put an interview with their chief legal officer with the Swedish public radio on the front page of their webpage without aquiring the rights to do so from the copyright holder (The radio station).

    For you guys who know swedish here [telia.com]is an interview where the public radio calls Henrik Pontén (The APB lawyer in question previously) and ask him how they could do that. My favourite quote (Liberally translated to English): "We are currently very busy hunting pirates. I don't have time to check our webpage every day".

    /Mauritz

  • this sounds familiar ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by SimonInOz (579741) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @06:50PM (#12017655)
    Come on, hand them over - we know you have weapons of mass destruction, we have the receipts!

  • FYI (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gagge (808932) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @07:35PM (#12018114)
    Again, APB (Anti-Piracy Bureau) is not a law-enforcement bureau, it's not connected to the government in any way. It's a lobby organisation for the film and music industry. Strangely, they get the police to do whatever they tell them, they even appear on site at the same time as the police during busts. The police even recommended on their website that piracy crimes should be reported to APB, not the police.

    • Re:Sigh (Score:5, Interesting)

      by tomhudson (43916) <hudsonNO@SPAMvideotron.ca> on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:37PM (#12016884) Journal
      So, we're supposed to get angry at all anti-piracy groups now because this one planted evidence?

      I mean, that's really the point of posting this. If GPL authors can go after GPL violaters, copyright owners can go after infringers.
      So what you're implying is that it would be okay to secretly insert GPL code into a non-GPL project, then sue to have the project opened up. After all, that's the same as planting evidence.

      That's NOT what the GPL is for. Submarining shi[tt] is wrong, whichever side does it.

      Mind you, I can see the NEXT PROFIT MODEL:

      1. Stick your mp3 collection on company server
      2. If you're laid off, threaten to rat them out at $150,000 a song
      3. P-R-O-F-I-T (sung to the tune "I want Money!")

        • Re:Sigh (Score:5, Insightful)

          by hkmwbz (531650) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @06:16PM (#12017314) Homepage Journal
          "I'm pointing out the real motives behind the posting of this article--to get the P2P piracy defenders up in arms. "See, THEY'RE the evil ones!""
          The real motives? They are the evil ones. This industry is actively lobbying for stricter laws that remove consumer rights, and move us towards fascism rather than democracy.

          These industry backed organizations pretend to be on a moral high ground, but the fact is that they engage in illegal and immoral activities.

          To me, entrapment, cartels, lobbying to remove individual rights, choking the market, terrorizing people with frivolous lawsuits, etc. are all far more serious than a bunch of kids swapping files.

          So yes, they are the evil ones, and the methods they are using to deal with kids swapping files are outrageous.

          "It's hypocrisy to complain about GPL violations but then try to paint anti-piracy groups as the bad guys."
          This is a load of crap, and you know it.

          • Re:Sigh (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Michael Hunt (585391) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @08:32PM (#12018596) Homepage
            No, Piracy is violence and murder atop the high seas. Selling thousands of bootleg copies of Windows XP or Britney Spears is both a violation of good taste and large scale copyright infringement.

            Nothing annoys me more than people referring to copyright infringement as 'piracy'. It does a dishonour to those I know who have actually had to fend off real pirates in their time (e.g. my best mate's dad, who's Chief Engineer on a very large Shell product carrier.)

    • Re:Sigh (Score:4, Interesting)

      by NanoGator (522640) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @06:14PM (#12017295) Homepage Journal
      "So, we're supposed to get angry at all anti-piracy groups now because this one planted evidence?"

      As opposed to not letting them know this behaviour won't be tolerated?

    • Re:Sigh (Score:5, Informative)

      by MightyMartian (840721) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @06:29PM (#12017434) Journal
      This is no different than a vice squad planting heroin to make a bust, or detectives planting a bloody knife to frame a suspect. I don't know what the rules are like in Sweden, but I know here in Canada (and I'm pretty sure in the US as well), a judge would toss the case out.

      Looks like a 21st century version of Sergeant Norman Pilcher's campaign against rock star druggies.

    • Re:Sigh (Score:5, Informative)

      by TorKlingberg (599697) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @07:21PM (#12017944)
      So, we're supposed to get angry at all anti-piracy groups now because this one planted evidence?

      These are some of the members companies of the Swedish Anti-Piracy Bureau. My guess is that most anti-piracy groups are run by them.

      Buena Vista Home Entertainment
      CAPITOL FILM DISTRIBUTION
      Columbia TriStar Films
      Microsoft
      PAN Vision
      Paramount Home Entertainment
      Sandrew Metronome
      Scanbox Entertainment
      Universal Pictures
      Vivendi Universal Games
      Warner Home Video
      Universal Music
      EMI Music
      Sony Music Entertainment

    • This is illegal in Sweden, FYI.

    • Re:wheres the outrage? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gr8_phk (621180) on Tuesday March 22 2005, @05:51PM (#12017057)
      "Law enforcement has been "hiring" hitmen in order to find and arrest them for decades."

      Law enforcement hires a hitman and then arrests him before he does the job - like right after he accepts some money. They do not commit murders themselves to become part of a group that does such (that we know of). They can pretend to be drug buyers in order to catch dealers, but it's not OK to become a low level dealer (selling to the public anyway) in order to move up the food chain to reach the source - or does this happen?

    • What do you call it when the cop gives you a kilo of grass, tells you it's free, then busts you for having it?

      Or closer to this case: If somebody comes up and hands me a bunch of weed for free, then goes and gets a cop and tells them I have weed, and the cop comes and busts me?

      Basically, somebody gave the guy servers and loaded warez onto them, then told the cops to bust the man. You can't tell me that's right. I may not know the legal terminology here, but it still ain't right nevertheless.
    • For some reason I envision a maximum security prison in Sweden being more like a college dorm than a prison.
      I suspect that might be more correct insight than intended. There are people going to Sweden who would regard emprisonment a paid vacation. Maybe not maximum security prison, but prision isn't a punishment in .se, it's a way of keeping society safe. Now I'm getting carried away again. I'd better stop typing. Argv, I cannot! but.. well, uhm. aaaaah[connection reset by peer]
    • Though they think of themselves as prosperous, Swedes as a group are actually worse off than black Americans, according to this Swedish study.
      What the linked study says is true, the numbers are sound. But numbers like the GDP per capita are only a part of the picture. If you condense the statistics down to one average American and one average Swede, you ignore that there are lots of poor Americans who are made up for by the top 1% Americans who have 1/3 of the wealth. In Sweden that curve is a lot more even. If you have a look at reports plotting the quality of life in countries of the world, Sweden usually makes the top 5 while the US aren't even in the top 20. Another issue with the GDP/capita is that, while it is a nicely internationally standardised and generally useful figure, it measures how much people produce. Americans produce more, thus earn higher wages, and use those to consume more. In the process they harm their environment much more, which isn't represented by the GDP. The US also have a huge national debt. In comparison, your average Swedes do have problems with unemployment, but those that have work also choose to work less and have more leisure time. They also don't want to have 3 TV sets and 2 cars per household.

      As far as the economic statistics go, I don't intend to contradict the parent poster at all, I just want to say you have to take them with the customary grain of salt. It's a different story with the crime rates: The parent is plain wrong. Crime rates in Sweden, and most of the EU in general, are lower than in the US. The provided link didn't work for me; maybe it was related to that Interpol report that inflated Sweden's murder rate to some 500% because of a statistical error? Again you must take care not to oversimplify things; maybe there are more pickpockets per capita in Sweden than in the US, or maybe they catch more pickpockets in Sweden (because the police aren't so occupied with homicides?), but when you visit Sweden you definitely don't have to be afraid that something really bad will happen to you. The crime rate is low.

      Speaking of crimes, the actual topic would have been something about piracy or so? Oh well. Maybe next time.

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