Gottfrid Svartholm Warg Arrested In Cambodia 138
An anonymous reader writes "The Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, alias "anakata,"
was arrested two days ago (Original, Swedish) in Pnohm Pehn, Cambodia and may soon be facing extradition to Sweden (alternate sources: Aftonbladet (Swedish), IDG (Swedish)). He was sentenced to one year in prison for his involvement in The Pirate Bay in 2009 and failed to appear at the prison to serve his sentence. On a related note, the domain freeanakata.se seems to have been registered today although it currently isn't resolving."
Sweden in general (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sweden in general (Score:4, Funny)
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What a ridiculous statement. Girls everywhere use the internet.
Wow, I hate to break it to you man...... but that hot 20 year old you've been chatting with is actually an old fat guy living in his moms basement.
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This meme is retarded, tired and sexist.
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Just as a tip, since you're already on the right track here: Mental retardation is a serious disability much like being blind or confined to a wheelchair. It's not cool to use it for insults or as a synonym for stupidity.
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And you forgot the treadmill :D
Re:Sweden in general (Score:5, Informative)
Breivik was sentenced to cointainment. That means he will only get out if he's deemed to no longer be dangerous to society. Very likely he'll be in prison until he dies.
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Reform is the goal, and would be the greatest possible victory for society.
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But you can't know that until you try.
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When it comes to criminals, the US media, followed by the public and then the government automatically condemns every criminal without hearing out reasons, potential catalysts or considering reform. They w
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"as a rational slashdotter "
a what?
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Lord, I sure hope not.
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Yes. Because all verdicts are made with 100% accuracy, and no innocent man has ever been sentenced to death.
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Reform is the goal, and would be the greatest possible victory for society.
Why? What victory does society get from reaching that goal?
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Re:Sweden in general (Score:4, Informative)
This is completely unrelated.. and this guys is obviously panicking, Sweden is very soft even to real criminals, they might be even softer then their neighbor Norway (where a man executed 77 children and only got max of 21 years in a comfy prison cell with a laptop and TV). The prison there is more like a rehab.
The 21 year sentence is subject to extension [wikipedia.org] if he is considered a danger to society. He's never going to get out. He might deserve anything [wikipedia.org], but we like to think we have progressed somewhat.
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This is completely unrelated.. and this guys is obviously panicking, Sweden is very soft even to real criminals, they might be even softer then their neighbor Norway (where a man executed 77 children and only got max of 21 years in a comfy prison cell with a laptop and TV). The prison there is more like a rehab.
The 21 year sentence is subject to extension [wikipedia.org] if he is considered a danger to society. He's never going to get out. He might deserve anything [wikipedia.org], but we like to think we have progressed somewhat.
So you're sentencing him to death by bureaucracy? How is this progress?
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Forvaring is more or less equivalent to life in prison with possibility of parole. It's not a particularly hard to understand sentence, and imo it makes sense, since it allows for decisions to be made based on whether someone is still a danger to society or not.
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All you've really accomplished is you've taken the problem and pushed it behind layers of bureaucracy and declared yourselves civilized. It may look civilized, but a wrongfully convicted person is still basically fucked, except that in your system no one cares any more because they've fooled themselves into believing the problem is solved.
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He might deserve anything, but we like to think we have progressed somewhat.
More like we're delayed, if the new penalty code that's 12 years delayed due to lack of computer systems to handle it (government bureaucracy, yay) was implemented he'd at least have gotten 30 years for terrorism. They can say what they want about "in practice", but in theory he could be back on the streets in 10 years if he pulls a total reformation.
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They can say what they want about "in practice", but in theory he could be back on the streets in 10 years if he pulls a total reformation.
Of course you're correct, but I'll try to clarify a little for our foreign friends :)
What I think satisfies a lot of Norwegians' sense of justice is the knowledge that his punishment will be very emotionally harsh. It also has a high probability of being unlimited in length. For his own safety he will have to be kept in solitude for a *very long* time. There are probably a lot of hardened criminals in the relevant prison who would happily choke him to death with their bare hands. It helps that he was ruled
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People were under the impression they were allowed to do things that were harder in other places.
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It appears to me that Sweden is becoming the centre of internet freedom battles. Is this geographical, cultural,legal or just luck of the draw?
Interesting question, and one that made me question my own national bias. I love the UK because I know no better. Parts of it are great, parts of it are terrible, but overall I can't imagine anyone improving on the mix.
I read your comment and I thought to myself, I bet everyone thinks that. There's always somewhere better, there's always somewhere worse.
Maybe Sweden is it. I don't think the UK is it. I KNOW Ireland isn't it. France isn't it. Germany wants to be it, but it isn't it.
Who IS it? Sweden
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If I were the U.S. entertainment industry and also a stupid douchebag, I might well target Sweden first for that reason.
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"[...] the U.S. entertainment industry and also a stupid douchebag [...]"
-1, Redundant
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If you want some insight into this, focus on the Karl Rove - Carl Bildt connection. Rove thinks he's Swedish and spends a lot ot time there and I'm sure it's just a coincidence Sweden has a pretty right wing government right now.
Re:Sweden in general (Score:5, Insightful)
These weren't cases anyone cared about until US money and pressure started telling Swedish authorities to care about them.
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Ah, but who else has a "watch list [wikileaks.org]"? Who else has the power to enforce it?
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Slashdotters are so ignorant. Why do you think that the U.S. is the only country that cares about enforcing the copyright laws that were passed by its legislature? You understand that other countries have laws, businesses, and music industry groups as well, right?
sure, but those industry groups again mostly cater for the american record and movie companies interests.
but, copyright/pirate cases ARE NOT NEW in nordic countries. GETTING JAILTIME FOR THEM IS !.
you used to be able to get without jailtime even for _stealing_ the bandwidth you ran your warez site on for fucks sake.
_highly_ selective prosecution is another part of this mess in nordic countries - which should not be the nordic way!
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t appears to me that Sweden is becoming the centre of internet freedom battles. Is this geographical, cultural,legal or just luck of the draw?
/---/ another guy accused of rape, leaves the country when his lawyer tells him that he is wanted for questioning, caught in Britain and released on bail, then disappearing into some embassy in breach of his bail conditions, which _does_ make him a criminal in the UK.
In a similar manner, leaving Sweden (after he had been requested to stay in Sweden by Swedish authorities) made him a criminal in Sweden (aside from being a suspect of rape and creating danger for another (sw: "Framkallande av fara", not sure what it is called in English legalise)). Sweden doesn't have a bail system, Swedish autorities just request criminal suspect to stay within reach (unless they believe the criminal is likely to commit new crimes), if the suspect doesn't accept the terms, he can choose t
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In a similar manner, leaving Sweden (after he had been requested to stay in Sweden by Swedish authorities) made him a criminal in Sweden (aside from being a suspect of rape and creating danger for another (sw: "Framkallande av fara", not sure what it is called in English legalise)). Sweden doesn't have a bail system, Swedish autorities just request criminal suspect to stay within reach (unless they believe the criminal is likely to commit new crimes), if the suspect doesn't accept the terms, he can choose to be put into arrest instead, at longest the time of the imprisonment for the crime he is suspected of have commited (in this case about 2-3 years for the rapes and, possibly, about 2 years for creating danger to another).
If Julian Assange had played by the (Swedish) rules, he would likely have been a free man within half a year from now. And Swedish authorities wouldn't have stopped him from continue his Wikileaks business during his time of imprisonment.
Bail systems only limit the movement of suspects with very limited monetary resources, which Assange haven't, he can ask his supporters for money to pay his bails.
In my opinion, Julian Assange is a paranoid fool (as well as an misogynic asshole). If he had stayed in Sweden, his life would have been a lot less complicated.
Interesting. In fairness to bail systems, they're not intended to restrict movement, they're there to keep honest people from being stupid and not showing up at court. If a judge thinks someone is a flight risk they simply don't get bail.
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In a similar manner, leaving Sweden (after he had been requested to stay in Sweden by Swedish authorities) made him a criminal in Sweden
That's not what happened though. He stayed for several weeks, said he was going to leave for engagements in the UK, got an ok to leave and left.
I'm surprised you were able to post all that text, yet hadn't researched even the basics on the topic.
/ an ashamed Swede
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c) Swedish authorities got really burned in 2001 by a US government that didn’t keep their promises and didn't tell the truth, when they have handed over two "criminal suspects" to US agents (the English language wikipedia article [wikipedia.org] seem to have been slightly censored), making Swedish authorities look very gullible.
The only thing we can say for sure is that Sweden now have a history of turning over people to countries where they can be tortured without having any kind of evidence for their alleged crimes. Julian Assange might be paranoid but he also have a reason to be. Obviously neither Sweden nor the U.S. are above breaking their own laws and resorting to torture by proxy.
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In my opinion, Julian Assange is [...] an misogynic asshole
What evidence do you base this opinion on?
If Julian Assange had played by the (Swedish) rules, he would likely have been a free man within half a year from now. And Swedish authorities wouldn't have stopped him from continue his Wikileaks business during his time of imprisonment.
Implying that he would have stayed in Sweden and not been extradited. But then why did the UK government issue a thinly-veiled threat to invade the Ecuadorian embassy, reiterate that threat [theregister.co.uk] recently by refusing to rule out the idea of violating diplomatic immunity, and come pretty close to storming the embassy because of heavy US pressure [wikileaks.org] to do so, according to former UK diplomat Craig Murray?
Re:Sweden in general (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Sweden in general (Score:5, Informative)
another guy accused of rape
Julian Assange has not been charged of anything by any authority of any kind. He is wanted for questioning on allegations of sexual misconduct Source [justice4assange.com]
leaves the country when his lawyer tells him that he is wanted for questioning
Before leaving the country he consulted with the judge, who decided there was nothing holding him there and he could leave Swedish soil [skandinaviflorida.com].
caught in Britain
Not caught, he turned himself to the police [globalpost.com] after it became clear that the illegal (or at least illegitimate) Interpol red notice [truthout.org] was not going away. This, in the hope of resolving the matter.
then disappearing into some embassy
He did not disappear, he sought asylum. [guardian.co.uk] That's quite a difference.
in breach of his bail conditions
Because it was the only choice he had left to avoid being ultimately handed over to a country where he would be tortured or executed, thus breaching the Geneva Conventions [wikipedia.org]
which _does_ make him a criminal in the UK
He has not been charged nor convicted of any crime by any government yet [talkradionews.com], not Sweden, not the USA, not even the UK as far as I can tell. (prove me otherwise)
On the other hand, Augusto Pinochet, charged by Spain for the killing of 3000 Chilean people, and torturing 30 000 more [wikipedia.org], including the raping of political prisoners with trained dogs [rrojasdatabank.info], was not only not extradited by the UK [wikipedia.org] but often drank tea with Margaret Tacher [wikipedia.org]
This just goes to show you how much lies we are being fed by governments and medias alike. It's fairly easy to hear officials make the same mistakes as you did.
Not because they are ignorant. Then know very well the details of this case. They're not stupid. They just choose to deliberately lie.
You can agree or disagree with the importance of what Wikileaks does, and the importance of what Assange and Manning do for our society, but that doesn't make your claims any less WRONG
Re:Sweden in general (Score:5, Informative)
Julian Assange has not been charged of anything by any authority of any kind. He is wanted for questioning on allegations of sexual misconduct
I can only assume that you are from Britain or the US (or some nation with a similar system of law) if you think this matters. Sweden's legal system is different. If he was on the run from the US instead of Sweden with the exact same charges and they held the same legal weight, he would have an arrest warrant out and have been charged. The US, Britain, and other similar legal systems charge someone formally and then try and capture them in most cases. The suspect is rarely present when charged. The Swedish system captures them and then charges them. Successfully running when they initiate the "capture and question" part of the Swedish system doesn't mean a get out of jail free card. It is of the same severity and holds similar legal weight to being charged in the US or Britain and having arrest warrant issued. This isn't the voluntary phase where you can talk to the police or not. He is in the "we are going to hold you and question you" phase, and there is a legal warrant to detain him which he has run from, which is why Britain is willing to extradite him.
Whether or not the charges are legitimate and is this a secret plot by the US to snag him, I'll let other people argue. I'm happy Wikileaks exists regardless of whether or not Assange is a douche bag.
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"Whether or not the charges are legitimate and is this a secret plot by the US to snag him, I'll let other people argue."
I've got you covered there. The rape allegations are by far one of the most obvious bullshit excuses for a man hunt in recent times, right up there with Saddam's WMDs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAPBbxOw7Jw
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Pinochet was a US puppet, put in place on September 11, 1973. And the 3000 Chileans were killed by US people. (Yeah, they probably conveniently leave that out in US history education.)
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Both are cocks so either way the t-shirts are still valid.
Prison for copyright violations (Score:2)
Time to shoot back? Or is self defense still frowned upon?
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As well as in many "civilized" countries of the West, where law enforcement is more concerned by not harming somebody than by going after people that actually harm other people.
Law enforcement is a sword, not a butter knife. You don't use sword to spread cream cheese on your slice of chiabata.
When a criminal is killed during criminal action, you, law enforcement should say, Alhamduli Allah, and wash your hands of any activities against the intended victim of such action.
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Frankly, Sweden and Norway seem better places to live than those where people praise their God whenever someone they don't like gets killed and the police "wash their hands" from investigating anything they don't feel like.
Also, do you really want to draw the attention of the kind of god that would find this sort of praise desir
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Yeah, no. Sweden actually has very liberal self defense laws. It even has provisions for using too much force than neccesary if it can be assumed that the situation was such that a normal person could be expected not to have self-control.
Now, being caught owning an unlicensed firearm, that's a different matter.
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Sorry, bub. when the majority votes away our rights, alternative methods must be used. Copyright is a privilege, and the majority is protecting the abusers of that privilege.
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Does Ecuador have an embassy in Cambodia? (Score:5, Funny)
n/t
Honeypot (Score:1)
So can we assume that TPB including the new VPN service is a honeypot now?
pointless links (Score:5, Insightful)
On a related note, the domain freeanakata.... seems to have been registered today although it currently isn't resolving."
Linking to a domain that any goon could have registered for profit is somewhere between spammy and stupid.
Re:pointless links (Score:5, Informative)
I'm the one who registered the domain. I have no intent on profiting from it, just thought of all the old "Free Kevin" websites when I heard about the arrest and registered the domain. I'm currently gathering URLs to different reports on the arrest and putting them on the site.
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The story doesn't read like AC submitter knew anything about you, which makes it still a bad idea. And your assurances to the contrary, at this point in time I don't know you, nor does it feel any less in the range of spammy to stupid to do so.
And if you submitted the story anonymously to give an "I don't know anything about this website but it's here in case you're interested later" feel to it, I actually feel dirty replying. Good luck with all of that.
Next time try Taliban or Al-Shabaab controlled (Score:3)
Next time try Taliban or Al-Shabaab controlled territory. The rest of the world is bent over to their American overlords.
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Actually that just makes it easier to target him with a drone strike. Then the US can say, "We were targeting taliban mid level guy X. Killing one of the founders of the pirate bay, he was just collateral damage."
Failed to Appear (Score:5, Funny)
This bit got me to chuckle.
"You said you were going to beeeeee there!"
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His lawyer produced a medical note stating that he was ill an unable to attend the hearing, but then lost contract and could not produce further notes to say he was unavailable for jail. Presumably if he ever were deported back to Sweden he could start an appeal based on his inability to attend and thus defend himself in court.
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The charge is stupid, but you kind of have to be a dumb ass to run from 1 year of prison in Sweden. Sweden is not exactly known for their harsh prisons, and a year in jail sounds a lot better than being forever on the run.
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> and a year in jail sounds a lot better than being forever on the run.
It's not clear to me that with a $1.1M judgment against him, the Swedish authorities would ever let him leave the country again.
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Unless you expect an American RIAA goon to have you extradited to Gitmo just on the day of your release.
Proxy Wars (Score:2)
From the cable: (Score:1)
1. (SBU) Summary. Embassy Stockholm recommends that Sweden continues to be placed in the Special 301 Initiative, and not be on the Watch List for 2009. We are aware of the differing recommendations of the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) and PhRMA. Post recommendation is based on:...
Sickening.. and more so that no government will stand up and tell the Americans
Better english language source (Score:1)
At least, I think it was 1. (Score:1)
> Gottfrid Svartholm Warg
Weren't those the blue-green versions of the dogs that bark and when they bark they shoot bees at you in Diablo I?
HHGG (Score:2)
Spelling (Score:1)
It's a holiday in Cambodia.... (Score:2)
Tough kid, but it's life.
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You're just rationalizing in order to feel better about your prison experience.
That is so extremely presumptuous that it is comical. You don't know me, and you have no idea
what my experience was like. I came out of prison a better person, and though it was a tough experience
at times I now realize that it probably was good for me, as strange as that might seem. So thanks for your
idiotic opinion, but I don't "need to feel better" about my experience. I have moved on. By the way, one thing
you obviously haven't learned yet is that it is unwise to talk shit to people you don't know. Perhap
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I made that joke too, no one noticed ):