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First Swede Prosecuted For File Sharing 432

Posted by Zonk from the hope-he-has-a-gameboy dept.
praps writes "The Local reports that a 27-year old man who allowed people to download a film from his PC has become the first Swede to be charged with illegal file sharing, after a tip-off from the country's notorious Anti-Piracy Bureau. It's a critical test case, as prosecutors say that anything less than a prison sentence would make future prosecutions unlikely." From the article: "The case was brought after a tip off from Antipiratbyrån (APB), a lobby organization set up by the media industry to combat illegal downloading in Sweden. Since the man was reported APB has found itself in hot water, with an Internet company accusing the organization itself of illegally downloading films and games.
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First Swede Prosecuted For File Sharing More

First Swede Prosecuted For File Sharing

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  • Here is what he said: (Score:3, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:22AM (#12045551)
    The file sharer was heard to say: "I cupy zee-a feeles und shere-a muosic vit my friends. Policee breek duon my duor und keeck my kittee. I im nut heppy. Bork Bork Bork!

    • Re:Here is what he really said: (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DancesWithBlowTorch ( 809750 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @10:19AM (#12046048)
      Actually, I think he mostly speaks in Swedish, since he's from Sweden. That's a large Country in the north of Europe (an area called Scandinavia), boasting one of the world's best education systems, an extremely well developed technological infrastructure (far better than the US, for example) and very strict ecological standards. The people there have got a language that is different from English (although remotely connected, both being germanic languages). English -- since you might wonder -- that's the language you've just used. Or, well, tried to. Swedish sounds quite different when compared to English. It is much more melodic. "Bork" is not a very common word in Swedish, as far as I know.
      Surprisingly enough, the swedish people, despite having this beautiful old language, try very hard to learn and speak English, because it happens to be a very popular language all over the world. It might be that a few of them have a rather strong accent, but you should hear how ridicolous native english speakers sound when they try to speak _any_ other language.


      Sorry for ranting. I know you where joking. But jokes about other people's lack of english skills mostly come from persons who have never mastered a foreign language (we don't even talk about their own...), that pisses me off.

      And, by the way: I'm not swedish. But all (8) the swedish people I know are extremely proficient in English.

  • Prison? (Score:5, Informative)

    by ram4 ( 636018 ) <Raphael_Manfredi@pobox.com> on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:23AM (#12045561)
    A prison sentence for copyright infrigement? Are we loosing the sense of proportion here?

    What about murderers? Oh right, they also get prison sentences.

    • Re:Prison? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by jam3s ( 857730 )
      Sense of proportion - Copyright infringement: Max 3 years, Murder - 25 to Life. I see a sense of proportion

      • Re:Prison? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:34AM (#12045677)
        So a human life is worth about 8 pirated movies.

        Good to know.
        • That's a messed up way to look at it.

          Say the punishment for murder was life. That's probably what, 50 years?

          Then you'd say, "So a human life is worth 18 pirated movies. Good to know."

          • No, it's not the same thing, as a life time sentence has far greater implications because as for the person it's indefinite and depending on the prison status can essentially not be much better than death sentence, or even worse.

          • Re:Prison? (Score:5, Insightful)

            by v01d ( 122215 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @10:15AM (#12046009) Homepage
            Then you'd say, "So a human life is worth 18 pirated movies. Good to know."

            And the point would still be valid. A life is worth more than every movie ever made; any punishment for copyright violation that includes jail time is out of proportion.


            By the same token anyone who risks jail time to download Big, is a bit crazy.

            • A life is worth more than every movie ever made

              Obviously, you've never seen "Lesbian Spank Inferno!"

            • Value of a life (Score:3, Insightful)

              by Cryogenes ( 324121 )

              A life is worth more than every movie ever made; any punishment for copyright violation that includes jail time is out of proportion.
              As a consequence no film whose making runs a non-zero risk of killing someone should ever be produced, right? Also, punishing ordinary theft with prison time is always out of proportion?

              Your thinking is based on the popular error, that a human life should be valued higher than any finite amount of money.

              Government continually has to make trade-offs between saving lives an
        • Can I trade these?

          If I make 8 movies and don't sue anyone for pirating them, can I trade that for killing someone?

          Nobody important, I accept that Gates is worth at least 20 movies....

      • Re:Prison? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ram4 ( 636018 ) <Raphael_Manfredi@pobox.com> on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:35AM (#12045685)
        Granted, but what about this further distinction:

        * Copyright infringement, for profit (illegal reselling of a copyrighted work for which you have no rights).
        * Copyright infringement without profit (illegal redistribution, for free).

        Would you agree that the second is of a lesser degree. And that it is closer to "free advertisement" (as in: "look, I like this movie/music, I think it's cool, don't you share my view?").

        • Re:Prison? (Score:2, Offtopic)

          by westlake ( 615356 )
          Copyright infringement without profit (illegal redistribution, for free).
          Would you agree that the second is of a lesser degree.

          This is the classic Robin Hood defense, and under American law, essentially worthless in court.

          • Re:Prison? (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Taladar ( 717494 )
            Probably worthless because the court system is designed to help rich people, the kind of people commiting crimes for money, not normal people.

          • Re:Prison? (Score:5, Informative)

            by MathFox ( 686808 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @10:06AM (#12045942)
            This is the classic Robin Hood defense, and under American law, essentially worthless in court.
            As far as I know, Sweden is a member state of the EU and US law doesn't apply there. In European Law (at least the Dutch law that I find easier to read that the Swedish) they make a difference between "infringement as business" and "infringement as private activity". It can make a factor 10 difference in punishment!

          • Re:Prison? (Score:5, Funny)

            by Ohreally_factor ( 593551 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @10:11AM (#12045986) Journal
            Copyright infringement without profit (illegal redistribution, for free).
            Would you agree that the second is of a lesser degree.

            This is the classic Robin Hood defense, and under American law, essentially worthless in court.

            Maybe it's worthless in court, but it rhymes, so I imagine Johnny Cochrane could use it pretty effectively.

          • This is the classic Robin Hood defense, and under American law, essentially worthless in court.

            You mean it is worthless in American courts now. It was not so 20 years ago. That was when non-commercial copyright infringement became a crime. Since copyright is intended to encourage artists to create useful works by granting them a limited monopoly, there was no reason to prohibit non-commercial distribution and it was not a crime. Since then copyright has turned into a "how much money can we get from them

        • Re:Prison? (Score:3, Insightful)

          by John Seminal ( 698722 )

          Granted, but what about this further distinction:

          * Copyright infringement, for profit (illegal reselling of a copyrighted work for which you have no rights).
          * Copyright infringement without profit (illegal redistribution, for free).

          Would you agree that the second is of a lesser degree. And that it is closer to "free advertisement" (as in: "look, I like this movie/music, I think it's cool, don't you share my view?").

          I would go one step further than saying the second is the lesser crime. I would say

      • Re:Prison? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by daikokatana ( 845609 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:56AM (#12045867)
        Recently there was a lot of commotion about a murder case here in Belgium. The end result was a 1 year sentence for the killer. Yes, that is 1 (one) year.

        Where is your sense of proportion now?

        Do you want another example? Ok, I have one right here. A guy (drunk) crashes his car into a building at high speed, kills one bystander. Previously, they have taken away his license three times for drinking and driving, speeding and reckless behaviour. End result? One year in prison. Please put him in jail with that Swede, I think they have a lot in common (sarcasm overdose).

      • Sense of proportion - Copyright infringement: Max 3 years, Murder - 25 to Life. I see a sense of proportion

        You can get probation [state.ny.us] for some pretty serious crimes, including attempted murder and rape. I think the sense of perspective is a bit out of whack here.
    • What about murderers? Oh right, they also get prison sentences.

      So do those convicted of non-violent. white-collar crimes, like Martha Stewart.

  • Less than prison is ineffective?? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by vitalyb ( 752663 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:24AM (#12045573) Homepage
    Ugh, for crying out loud. I can only hope that the judges are more sane than the persecutors.

    It is still a question if that's "stealing" at all but they just have to put someone in prison for it anyway.

    Seems like what they're hoping for is that the whole P2P is a bad dream and if they POP it hard enough, it will all go at once. Next aim would be to put a man on an electric chair, I guess?

    So... How hard do they need to abuse the next victim for you to stop downloading? Prison? Ass rape? Work camps? Sheesh.
    • Sweden does not have the death penalty (in fact, the abolishment of the death penalty is a requirement for becoming a member of the European Union). And fortunately, Sweden's not Australia, either, so there's probably no real chance that this guy (or someone else) will be extradited to the USA to undergo trial there.
      • On the same note. Maybe prison in Sweden is not bad after all, or so we can learn from this article [nytimes.com].

        With such prisons he might as well trade a large money fine for a few years in the no-security prisons in Sweden.

        (Is there wi-fi in these prisons, I wonder)
        • GEESH! Those aren't prisons, they're summer camps! And yes, I did RTFA.

        • Re:Less than prison is ineffective?? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 25, 2005 @10:34AM (#12046194)
          On this side of the Atlantic we've moved past the medieval system of executions and brutal prison that you Americans incomprehensibly think is compatible with civilisation. We recognise two things - firstly, that prison is about rehabilitation, not anal rape, and secondly, that simply being deprived of one's freedom for several years is already a horrible punishment, without actually having to chain people to damp dungeon walls.

          You people seem to think justice is all about retribution and "making the bastards what did it suffer". We think it's about keeping criminals away from the public (so they can't continue to commit crimes), and trying to reeducate them so they won't go on and commit crimes again when they're released.

          Europe has a lower crime rate per capita than the USA: in the case of Sweden, far lower. There are only two possible conclusions - either Americans are genetically predisposed to crime, or the European systems of government, education, and justice work better than the American one. I'll leave it to you to decide which of the two you consider less unflattering.

    • Re:Less than prison is ineffective?? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Dice Fivefold ( 640696 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:58AM (#12045881)
      The reason the prosecutors want a prison sentence is this:
      According to Swedish secrecy law, the ISPs can only be ordered to reveal the identities behind IP numbers if the crime is worth a prison sentence. This case will serve as a precedent. If this guy is spared from prison (very likely), ISPs will no longer reveal file sharers identity.
    • So... How hard do they need to abuse the next victim for you to stop downloading? Prison? Ass rape? Work camps? Sheesh.

      You never really made a point or gave any reasoning for why you feel the person should not be imprisoned. Do you feel that it is no big deal? It is a violation of the law, and apparently it is punishable by imprisonment in Sweden. Were you on the side of Michael Fay when he went to Singapore and vandalized the country? I'm personally glad that they caned his ass. People can't just k
    • I can only hope that the judges are more sane than the persecutors.

      I was about to say "You misspelled 'prosecutor'" but then realized that in this case, you're right. ;)

  • Nice prosecutor (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bigtallmofo ( 695287 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:25AM (#12045590)
    I thought the headline First Swede prosecuted for sharing files on net was fairly ominous but then I felt better after I read down a bit...

    Here's a quote from the prosecutor:

    "As these cases do not involve criminals, but instead quite ordinary people who share their files, any prison sentence would certainly be suspended," Rudström said.

    Is it just me or does this sound like something that would be said by a defense attorney?

    • Re:Nice prosecutor (Score:5, Interesting)

      by remahl ( 698283 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:41AM (#12045733)
      According to Swedish law, the responsibility of the prosecutor is not to get the most severe punishment, but the most appropriate and lawful one. The prosecutor may not even prosecute if he/she is not reasonably sure it will result in a conviction.

    • Re: Nice prosecutor (Score:5, Funny)

      by Black Parrot ( 19622 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @10:54AM (#12046397)


      > I thought the headline First Swede prosecuted for sharing files on net was fairly ominous

      I was shocked just to hear that the first Swede is still alive.


  • Crimnal Case??? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by adennis ( 846411 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:27AM (#12045608)
    I don't know about everyone else, but copyright violations seem like they should ONLY be civil. This criminal prosecution is just taken to far: congress was even attempting to pass a bill that would make copyright violation a criminal offense in the US! (I dont think it passed though..)

    Won't putting these people in jail prevent the copyright holders of collecting damages? (Isn't that the point: that they are supposed to be reimbursed for lost money?)

    If this happened in the US, the end result would be that everyone that is ever convicted of copyright violation is going to be punished twice: jailtime plus civil lawsuit...
    • Won't putting these people in jail prevent the copyright holders of collecting damages? (Isn't that the point: that they are supposed to be reimbursed for lost money?)

      Many people work in prison. The guy can apply to work at the lampshades and rattan baskets workshop and pay off his debt to the RIAA^H^H^H^HAPB in less than 10000 years.
    • Won't putting these people in jail prevent the copyright holders of collecting damages? (Isn't that the point: that they are supposed to be reimbursed for lost money?)

      When you're in prison you don't need your house nor your car...

      /greger

    • The Bush administration has effectively turned
      what was once considered to be a civil case
      (copyright infringement) into a criminal case.

      Of course, since Federal prosecution under the
      auspecies of the USA Patriot Act (I) may not be
      permitted to be publicized, the full value of the
      impact upon P2P file sharers (to change their ways)
      might get lost. Publicity, especially very bad
      publicity, can go a long way toward influencing
      change in behaviour (beneficial to **AA).

      When a recent case (that should have been "civi
    • This criminal prosecution is just taken to far: congress was even attempting to pass a bill that would make copyright violation a criminal offense in the US! (I dont think it passed though..)

      The No Electronic Theft Act signed in 1997 removed the profit motive as a necessary element in a criminal prosecution for copyright indringement: Criminal Intellectual Property Laws [cybercrime.gov].

  • Maybe sanity will prevail.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by garroo ( 748175 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:27AM (#12045614) Journal
    From the article: "It is, for example, a breach of copyright laws to copy a music book, but it is not illegal to receive or use the copied book," said the party's legal affairs spokesman, Johan Linander. "It should be no more complicated than that in the digital arena," he added.

    Hopefully, this sort of more sane attitude will prevail. How is this different than if he lent a copy of the DVD to a friend?

    In many countries, it would be acceptable to view it, copy it, or parts, while it's in the borrowers possession.

    This should be the case here. The whole world is surely watching this case! Use your heads Sweden!!!

  • APB (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:28AM (#12045621)
    tip off from Antipiratbyrån

    My file døwnløåding sister wås bitten by an antipiratbyrån once...
    • I wish I had mod points!

    • Re:APB (Score:5, Funny)

      by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:36AM (#12045696)
      Come si our loveli byttørrents...

    • Re:APB (Score:3, Informative)

      by Jugalator ( 259273 )
      My file døwnløåding sister wås bitten by an antipiratbyrån once...

      FYI...

      Norway and Denmark:
      å : aa, æ : ae, ø : oe

      Sweden:
      å : aa, ä : ae, ö : oe
      • å : aa

        Curiosity... Wouldn't that be better transliterated as å : oa?

        I dunno, I took a semester of Swedish a few years ago on a whim. I don't really remember much beyond how to count to tjugo and say "Hjälp! Var är toaletten?"

        • Modern Å is the correct transcription of French (e)au and corresponding spellings in English: bureau becomes byrå; however, the letter å is originally derived from the long, back, semi-closed North Germanic a sound, spelt aa (pronounced roughly like "awe"). It is still spelt aa in many Norwegian and Danish names

    • On a more serious note, Antipiratbyrån has been under some fire (very lame fire, since Swedish media generally don't understand the whole copyright issue) recently for planting copyrighed material as an excuse to raid the ISP Bahnhof. More on that here [thelocal.se] and (in Swedish) here [bahnhof.se].

  • APB themselves aren't really spreading files (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Jugalator ( 259273 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:31AM (#12045655) Journal
    Since the man was reported APB has found itself in hot water, with an Internet company accusing the organization itself of illegally downloading films and games.

    More exactly: for paying a person to infiltrate an ISP to download and spread copyrighted files there, and later sue that ISP. I don't think the infiltrator was actually employed by the anti-piracy bureau; he just got some money to do the job. Also, it's not known anyone else at APB has in any case done this themselves. It's still of course quite dirty tactics to sue an ISP, and I hope they're not getting away with it.

  • Why can't American law be as sensible as Europe's? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by standbypowerguy ( 698339 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:32AM (#12045660) Homepage
    Almost every artice I read involving IP law in Europe shows that the legislative and judicial bodies in Europe display far more common sense than the their American counterparts, which appear to be motivated only by "good ol' boy" corporate greed and a misplaced sense of righteousness. It's readily apparent to me that the real innovations in contentent delivery and IP law reforms that are soreley needed will come from Europe, not the US.

  • Pirate Bay (Score:5, Informative)

    by kiveol ( 866603 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:33AM (#12045672)
    The person in charge of Pirate Bay (a major BitTorrent site) has been flaunting the fact that laws in the US/EU don't have any effect in Sweden. http://static.thepiratebay.org/legal/ [thepiratebay.org]

    This could be the end of the low ratio of torrents deleted vs. the law suits...

    • Re:Pirate Bay (Score:2, Troll)

      by theVP ( 835556 )
      That's the first thought/fear that crossed my mind when I read this story. Anakata has been pretty sure of Pirate Bay's legality thus far. Pirate Bay hasn't been my FAVORITE torrent site of all time in the past, but it's always seemed to me as a site that was "safe" from American legal bullshit.

    • Re:Pirate Bay (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ardiri ( 245358 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @10:33AM (#12046180) Homepage
      • The person in charge of Pirate Bay (a major BitTorrent site) has been flaunting the fact that laws in the US/EU don't have any effect in Sweden


      he isn't flaunting that US/EU laws have no effect; he is simply mentioning that bittorrents are not illegal. if bittorrents were illegal, then so would a http reference from slashdot. keep in mind a bittorrent only tells you how to get the files by providing information as to where the file is being tracked. its not the copyrighted file in question that he is hosting.

      hence, its perfectly legal.
    • This could be the end of the low ratio of torrents deleted vs. the law suits...

      Not really; just because a guy might go in prison for spreading files, doesn't mean operators of a site suddenly get responsible for taking away locations (.torrent's) of copyrighted material. Copyrighted material could always be spread in illegal ways even in Sweden, but the part about The Pirate Bay is another topic of sysop responsibilities in the current BBS law in Sweden. At least that's the law TPB has been supporting the
  • Carrots and parsnip are every bit as bad when it comes to file sharing.

  • In yet another critical test case .. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RedLaggedTeut ( 216304 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:37AM (#12045700) Homepage Journal
    In yet another critical test case, prosecutors say that anything less than a prison sentence would make future prosecutions of people exceeding the speed limit by 16 km/h(10mph) unlikely.

  • This APB is in a big mess. (Score:5, Informative)

    by a_n_d_e_r_s ( 136412 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:38AM (#12045707) Homepage Journal
    "accusing the organization itself of illegally downloading films and games."

    Downloading ? No its uploading they are accused of. One informant they hired was the main one responsible for uploading films, music and computer programs to a computer at a ISP who they later got the police to raid and take for evidence.

    The thing is a whole mess with basically everyone involved having been accused of misconduct or unlawful activities - ISP, police and the APB.

  • Africa calling.. (Score:3, Funny)

    by E IS mC(Square) ( 721736 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:46AM (#12045774) Journal
    Now is the time to move to Africa - the animal and music pirate sanctuary!

  • Slashdot at its best... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This is the typical attitude of most Slashdoters.

    Not two days ago almost everyone agreed with Apple about the lawsuit against the guy who leaked a *beta* of Tiger. Now suddenly there are 3/4 comments questioning if this Swede was even stealing...

    And in the typical Slashdot philosophy this comment will be modded down and all the rest arguing wether this was stealing will be modded Interesting/Insightful.

    This is a good example why I don't even argue here about copyrights and just skip those news items (apa
    • Has it ever occurred to you that Slashdot has more than one user, and therefore the set of people who were supporting the results of the Apple case are not necessarily a member of the set of people who think it's alright to pirate music/movies?

      The current Slashdot new UID is something in the 800K range. Even if only 10% of Slashdot UIDs are active, that still leaves 80K users. Amazing, isn't it, that there may be people who have different sets of opinions in this number of users, hmm?
  • But in some jurisdictions in the U.S., similar behavior by the police/corporation and a moderately sophisticated defense lawyer would get the judge to dismiss the case, and stare down the prosecutor while say, "Are you Nuts???!!"

    Hopefully, Sweden will work out the same way.

    One law for everyone, not one law for the corporations, another for individuals.

    If they jail this guy, they should jail those involved in the APB operations.

  • The First Swede... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Nimrangul ( 599578 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @10:10AM (#12045973) Journal
    You know when I first read that I thought for a second that that must be their version of a president, the First Swede.

    Sounds like a good name for a gouvnerment official.

  • WHAT? (Score:4, Funny)

    by nege ( 263655 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @10:13AM (#12045995) Journal
    Are they kidding? Putting this guy in jail will be the informational age equivalent of being a martyr! Someone should tell the prosecutors: "If you strike him down, he will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine!"

  • APB caught violating copyright! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by d99-sbr ( 568719 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @10:14AM (#12046004) Journal
    Now this will certainly crack you up, but it turns out that Swedish public access radio (SR) channel P3 did an interview with Antipiratbyrån (APB) a while ago. APB then went ahead and published this interview on their website. Naturally, republishing a recording from radio is an obvious copyright violation.

    Somehow, SR discovered this. They brought their legal counsel into the studio, rang up APB, and confronted them. APB's response?

    * Firstly, they try to claim that they only link to the audio clip, and not a copy of it. The legal counsel shoots this down immediately citing a court decision where linking directly to a file is equivalent to sharing a copy.

    * Secondly, APB claim that what they are really looking for are pirates who make a lot of money from their piracy. As has been discussed pretty heavily in Swedish media, this kind of piracy is virtually nonexistent in Sweden.

    * Thirdly, they dismiss the whole thing, because, and this is the best thing: THEY ARE TOO BUSY HUNTING DOWN PIRATES!

    This news hasn't really broken yet, and because of easter holdays I believe it won't until early next week.

    Skip

  • Well in the US... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by suitepotato ( 863945 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @10:35AM (#12046199)
    ...it was always explained to me by lawyers back when I first started writing programs that copyright and patent and trademark were only supposed to be civil constructs for the early protection of the originator, giving them a chance to make first fair use of their creations.

    They were NOT supposed to be used to create monopolies on things like calling "dibs" on the front seat of the car in perpetuity when you were a kid. The onus was on the originator to take steps to protect their turf at the outset, and from then on. It was up to the originator to perform due diligence in enforcement of their transitory rights in the matter or lose them. These were NOT rights in the same sense as freedom of speech and so on, these were legal constructs based in laws and not presupposed natural holdings recognized in the US Constitution.

    Now it's at the point that various associations are unilaterally taking it upon themselves to do the due diligence on behalf of the originators and in most cases with no legal agreement to perform that representation on their behalf. Only the parties directly affected have any standing and they must do their own work short of legal assignment of rights and/or responsibilities by binding contract.

    You cannot merely imply that a third party has standing simply by virtue of the subject matter. IOW, you can't simply have the RIAA do your copyright enforcement for no better reason than they are a recording association and you made a recording. You have to enter into an agreement or they have no business doing your enforcement for you. That's the way it was explained to me when I wrote my first program and like an adult, I accepted my responsibilities.

    Moving it from the civil side to the criminal side is the next level of lunacy. As most every lawyer I've ever spoken with agrees, we already have some several hundred times more laws than we can possibly enforce, causing us to reduce more and more criminal offenses to de minimus status, where they aren't worth the time of the authorities to go after.

    If we continue on this path unabated, we will get to the point that the police will have to either put all this crap on the back burner and ignore most of it, or they will have to become a weird combination of the firemen of Fahrenheit 451 and the thought police of 1984. Is this really what we want?

    The other consequence is growing civil unrest and here in the age of the global Internet, with cryptography and hacking knowledge being so freely availible, and the growing anti-corporate socialistic mindset combining more and more with basic human cynicism, we're looking at more and more subversive and reactionary fighting back.

    Does it only seem like the future is going to end up like some techno-future anime? I am all for growing rabid peaceful noncompliance, fighting them to a standstill, until a peace treaty of sorts can be worked out if only in terms of a gentlemens' silent agreement. We need to come to an accomodation somewhere in between before it is too late.
  • It was all fun and games as long as it was U.S. citizens, but now that they've rolled a Swede, the streets will run red with blood!

  • Copyright insurance (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jlebrech ( 810586 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @11:35AM (#12046785) Homepage
    I have a plan that would remove all this nonsense and that is an insurance for people who use p2p. People can pay a small sum per month and if a company sues that individual for copyright theft the money from the insurance pays up for the lawsuit and damages. And as companies only sue a minor number of people an insurance company would also make money.

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