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Anti-Piracy Bureau of Sweden Planted Evidence 346

Posted by Zonk from the sure-fire-way-to-crack-the-case dept.
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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Anti-Piracy Bureau of Sweden Planted Evidence More

Anti-Piracy Bureau of Sweden Planted Evidence

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  • On this occasion... (Score:5, Funny)

    by brouski ( 827510 ) on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @06:24PM (#12016734)
    I think an "OH SNAP!" is appropriate.

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

    by EmbeddedJanitor ( 597831 ) on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @06:24PM (#12016739)
    Oh, wait...

  • ah-HA !! (Score:5, Funny)

    by jpiggot ( 800494 ) on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @06:24PM (#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 @06:24PM (#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 @06:28PM (#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 @06:45PM (#12016991) Homepage 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?

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

          by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @07:04PM (#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 @07:55PM (#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.
    • Uhm? APB is not a government institution. It's a private group sponsored by different companies.
    • You mean you're not shocked, shocked, by this abuse of power? I wonder how "COINTELPRO" is pronounced in Swedish...

    • Re:Just a thought (Score:2, Informative)

      by paltemalte ( 767772 )
      Actually APB (antipiratbyrån) is not an authority, just a lobby group. So the government was not in on this (although they happily provided the thugs/policemen to carry out the operation). Everyone including swedish mainstream media are making APB out to be crooks and dumbasses now. For once the media does something good!
    • 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...

      Well, not sure what it has to do with anything as my understanding of most escrow systems is that only the decrypt keys are stored in escrow, meaning while you can READ data with escrow key, you cannot write it, and thus you cannot tamper with data. This is directly oposite of what happened in this case and reeks of FUD.

      -Em

  • "so called warez" ?

    C'mon, this is slashdot, we know our piracy stuff... :)

  • Rouge? (Score:3, Funny)

    by AAeyers ( 857625 ) on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @06:26PM (#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?!

  • Sigh (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    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.

    • Re:Sigh (Score:5, Interesting)

      by tomhudson ( 43916 ) <barbara.hudson@b ... m ['son' in gap]> on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @06:37PM (#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!")
      • 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!")


        Best part is, you don't need underpants to do it!
    • yes, because if you cant trust the govt then we wont obey ANY RULES or LAWS and say F.U.

      The govt and law enforcement can easily ruin any ones life, totally!!, but one case of infringement isnt going to ruin a company or cause life long problems for the company, it just moves on and keeps making sales.

      Id rather be a salesman/marketer any day than an enforcement agent.

    • Re:Sigh (Score:4, Interesting)

      by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @07:14PM (#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:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      If GPL authors can go after GPL violaters, copyright owners can go after infringers.

      No matter how many times this is explained the ACs never seem to catch on. (is that a troll i smell?)

      Using without paying is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than claiming authorship. Lumping them both under the umbrella term "piracy" is orwellian meme bundling.

      Need proof? Using without paying is legal in my country, but violating the GPL is not. See? Different.

    • Re:Sigh (Score:5, Informative)

      by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @07:29PM (#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:3, Informative)

        by thaum1el ( 251929 )
        Actually, by Swedish law you might find yourself persecuted if you provoce a crime.

        But this is more like planting evidence, and I am pretty sure it is illegal in most western countries. It sure is here in Sweden.

    • Re:Sigh (Score:5, Informative)

      by TorKlingberg ( 599697 ) on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @08:21PM (#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

  • "warez" (Score:5, Funny)

    by pablonhd ( 797579 ) on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @06:26PM (#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 @06:27PM (#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 @06:28PM (#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."
    • Yes but is the entrapment defense valid in Sweden?
    • the point is that it's illegal to do such things in sweden.

      in usa the feds have couple of times(?) supplied fast connections and servers to get into the scene to bust people.
    • 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
  • Damn people can't spell. Or he is purposely going by "rouge" but why would a guy do that? Maybe after so many years of going by the typo of "rogue" he just couldn't give it up... ha.

  • Hmm... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @06:31PM (#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 @06:39PM (#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.

      • Re:Hmm... (Score:3, Interesting)

        by DavidTC ( 10147 )
        Entrapment for the police means they have no case. They can't arrest people for stuff the police encouraged them to do.

        'Entrapment' for private citizens is just simply 'breaking the law'. It's no more entrapment than driving a getaway car is entrapment...it's just a crime, period. Doesn't matter if you were going to turn them in or not.

    • So what you're saying is that if a private citizen buries a suitcase full of crack cocaine in my back yard and goes and tells the cops, I should be tried and convicted for it even if I show that I never put the case there and that someone else did?

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

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @06:31PM (#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.
    • I remember when a friend came up to me and said. "Have you seen all those Juarez web sites?". I had no idea what he was talking about, except maybe that he was fascinated by going to a part of Mexico not known for tourism. Eventually I found out he meant warez, and sincerely was reading it wrong.
    • I college I had a job as an assistant Sys Admin.

      One day while talking about sending an e-mail to the users to delete files and make space, he asks me "Do you know who this user Warez is?" (*It was for a very small department of mostly post docs)

      Feeling that hunch I say "I'm not sure, how do you spell it?"

      "W-A-R-E-Z"

    • >
      > No. He read 0day warez as "Oday Juarez."
      >
      I am helpess in the grip of the obligatory WKRP In Cincinnati quote:

      Johnny: Les, correct me if I'm wrong, but have you developed a recent fondness for alliteration?

      Les: Well, I'm trying to find a style, Johnny. All good newsmen nowadays have to have a style in order to stand out from the crowd.

      Johnny: But Les, you've always had a real style of your own. How many newsmen called Chi Chi Rodrigues "Chiy-Chiy Rodwagwayz"? And what is it you call those

  • Rouge? (Score:3, Funny)

    by damiangerous ( 218679 ) <1ndt7174ekq80001@sneakemail.com> on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @06:33PM (#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
    • Kinda like those people who get random Chinese characters tattooed on them.

      Hmmm, anyone happen to know the Chinese character for "fuckface?" I've just thought of a funny practical joke to play on a certain drunken friend.

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

    by Auckerman ( 223266 ) on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @06:35PM (#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 @06:36PM (#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 @06:38PM (#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 @07:15PM (#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.

  • What do Swedish Pirates themselves have to say? (Score:5, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @06:39PM (#12016907)
    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!
  • If the server was running *nix, and had remote syslog configure to pipe all FTP logs to another server in another country. The IP address and files uploaded would be recorded. At that point, they will have to deal with hunting down the internet connection and who used it, which is easier said than done. Just a thought.
    • or setup 20 gmail accounts called "ftplog_001" etc..

      and email the bziped logs to the email account.

      or use a large long hex string to confuse the 'normal' people in plush govt offices ;)

      Out of 50 characters, someones bound to get 1 character wrong.

  • wrong term (Score:2, Redundant)

    by Rydia ( 556444 )
    That's not really planting evidence, it's a form of entrapment.

  • What constitutes "hard time" in a Swedish prison? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by swb ( 14022 ) on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @07:10PM (#12017256)
    I'm pretty sure that Sweden has Bad People(TM) like every other place, but for some reason socialist propaganda (generally not Swedish) and common stereotypes suggest that just about everything except the weather is a little kinder, gentler and more socially aware than everywhere else.

    For some reason I envision a maximum security prison in Sweden being more like a college dorm than a prison.
    • For some reason I envision a maximum security prison in Sweden being more like a college dorm than a prison.

      I have never heard of anybody getting raped in a norwegian prison, nor have I ever heard about anybody being beaten up without anybody caring. Nor have, in fact, ever heard any bad prison stories being told.

      Clean prisons are what seperates us from the savages.

    • 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]

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

    by hpj ( 26910 ) on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @07:19PM (#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

  • Illegal Activity? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ThisIsFred ( 705426 ) on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @07:21PM (#12017363) Journal
    Uh... According to their own admission, the "opposition" hijacked a domain belonging to the Antipiratbyrån. That's about the only illegal activity going on here that I see. This doesn't help the cause.

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

    by SimonInOz ( 579741 ) on Tuesday March 22, 2005 @07:50PM (#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 @08:35PM (#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.

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