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Sweden to outlaw peer-to-peer file swapping

30 July 2003 12:54 by Jari Ketola | 27 comments

The implementation of EUCD will have staggering consequences to Swedish computer users. Not only will it limit the consumers' rights to make copies of CDs and DVDs for personal use, but it will also criminalize peer-to-peer file sharing.

The Swedish government is proposing a law which would require the permission from the copyright owner before any music, video, photo or text material can be spread on the net. P2P software, such as Kazaa will be outright outlawed, as will software intended for bypassing copy protection on movies and audio CDs.

Also the right to make personal copies will be further limited, but it will still be legal to make copies for personal use.

According to the minister of justice Thomas Bodstr�m the new legislation doesn't radically change the current attitude towards copyrights.

"The new law has not been tailored to satisfy the needs of large record companies. Essentially it retains the earlier views on copyrights. As technology develops, the legislation must also be kept up to date," Bodstr�m commented.

Distributing or downloading illegal copies on P2P networks can lead to a sentence of up to two years in prison. Usually only those sharing illegal files have been made liable in court. The Swedish law will also prohibit downloading.

Source:
Aftonbladet (in Swedish)

Permalink to this article

DVDFab development stopped due to German version of EUCD (18 July 2003)

Germany becomes the fifth country to implement EUCD (15 July 2003)

Sweden's EUCD proposal online (18 June 2003)

European Commission: downloading pirated material should be legal (3 February 2003)

Finland kills EUCD -- for now (31 January 2003)

EUCD implementation delayed in most EU countries (17 December 2002)

Finnish government's proposal for EUCD implementation (10 October 2002)

Is DeCSS legal in your country? (13 August 2002)

UK Patent Office's preparations for EUCD are online (10 August 2002)

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Discuss this article!	There are more user comments available, read them here
Rodgers (Inactive) 30 July 2003 14:56
I guess in the case of Sweden, it will be back to inductive recordings from radio, like the good old days.Best to All! Rodgers [ + quote]
unwanted (Inactive) 30 July 2003 15:03
Unlucky Swedes "Save the music Ya'll" [ + quote]
seanbyrne (Member) 30 July 2003 15:35
If this outlaws Peer-to-peer file swapping in General, it will in turn outlaw filesharing on Local Area Networks, i.e. sharing your files or documents using Windows' built in sharing may be illegal in this case! These new laws are seriously getting out of hand and are really there to just help the music industry. They are only boasting that it helps artists to make it easier to pass the laws. The Government should have tried other techniques such as force low price fixing, etc. first and only introduce a law as a last resort :( [ + quote]
LIVE4DVD (Inactive) 30 July 2003 16:02
This is a bunch of crap. The Music industry just keeps shooting itself in the foot. By the time they realize how angry they have made the consumers buying their products, it will be too late. People will swap music any way they can. They cannot stop it. All they can do is continue to alienate the very people who buy their music, us!!! If they start putting people in prison for downloading a song, then I think most people will have lost what little respect they have left for our legal system! [ + quote]
Oriphus (AfterDawn Addict) 30 July 2003 17:31
This is actually very interesting. For example, say you are connected remotely to an office and use a peer-to-peer system to transfer yur fiels. Do they consider this a form of peer-to-peer, because it is. They cant just outlaw it like that, it wont work. Say i want to send a file to my friend, they will have no way of stoppping me. I think it will be based more at the companies like Kazaa, not the IRC type systems. For DVD Back up info: http://www.chrismccann.co.uk For User Guides/Downloads: http://www.chrismccann.co.uk/user_guides.htm [ + quote]
rocky999 (Junior Member) 31 July 2003 4:35
Some day, someone is going to organize a campaign where everyone in a country boycotts the record stores. If everyone stopped buying ANY cds for a period of say 1 or 2 months, all of this would change. [ + quote]
Obike (Newbie) 31 July 2003 5:12
If only polititions had balls and stopped taking back handers from big corporations we wouldt have all these problems. Well maybe some of them but not as many as we have. Im just glad i dont live in sweden. It bound to happen here sometime tho. [ + quote]
GrayArea (Member) 31 July 2003 11:06
Making alcoholic beverages illegal worked great for the USA� We mustn't lower ourselves to the level of those we loathe, lest we become loathsome ourselves. [ + quote]
Dela (Staff Member) 31 July 2003 12:48
ah well! givernments dont have a clue, so they should just go away, stay away from the net u assholes! http://www.BillLonero.com - Check out a true artists music! aD Channel on IRC: Server: rod.liquidirc.com channel: #ad_buddies [ + quote]
Toiletman (Senior Member) 31 July 2003 15:15
Fuck them as well. We should add this to the anti-RIAA board. When you are on your deathbed, you will wonder, "Did I waste my life? Was it worth spending all that time on that?" Do not despair, no one has wasted their life. After all, you can only waste something if you throw it away. And you can't throw life away. [ + quote]
Amakuza_8 (Inactive) 31 July 2003 20:39
It is politics games.blaa..blaaa,blaa...governments are always lied. [ + quote]
vFreak (Inactive) 1 August 2003 2:16
"Distributing or downloading illegal copies on P2P networks can lead to a sentence of up to two years in prison." 2 Years!!!? Is that not unbelievably out of proportion to the "crime"? Seems like they're taking knee-jerk draconian measures to try and stop the over-bloated corporate record companies from making less obscene amounts of cash from churning out mindless dirge! [ + quote]
Dela (Staff Member) 1 August 2003 2:19
lovely the way they are trying to turn their voters into criminals aint it! :-) http://www.BillLonero.com - Check out a true artists music! aD Channel on IRC: Server: rod.liquidirc.com channel: #ad_buddies [ + quote]
ICEPIMP (Member) 1 August 2003 20:40
These laws ar so damn stupid!!! They dont work! no one will follow them! Its like telleing everybody not to go over 65mph on the highway, and then expect everyone to do so the next morning.. 80% of the people drive over 65 and the same 80% goes for the people who dont give a flying fu*k about these laws!! JUST BECAUSE OF THIS IM GOIN TO START BRAKING MORE LAWS AND SHARE EVEN MORE FILES, DOWNLOAD MORE MP3'S AND AVI'S. AND HELL IF I FIND OUT WHERE THEIR OFFICE IS I WILL SURE AS HELL BURN IT STRAIGHT TO THE GROUND!! AN ANGRY SWEDE [ + quote]
maryjayne (Junior Member) 1 August 2003 22:45
Governments might as well try to ban the internet itself. The battle would be just as easy and would take care of children getting free porn as well! Long live P2P! Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin Time is never wasted when you are wasted all the time. [ + quote]
gocanada (Inactive) 2 August 2003 9:37
Some just don't get it! They're the same kind that tried to ban Elvis, the Beatles, and censor rap music. The harder they try, the more people will resist. As for the music industry, maybe if they stopped feeding the radio full of crap, they'd have more sales. Even my 14-year-old son says I'm lucky to have been a teen in the '70's because we had such a variety of good music. He doesn't. Real Canadian [ + quote]
ICEPIMP (Member) 2 August 2003 12:35
Yea i mean what are they expecting?? They say the law is gonna be introduced in the next year shift. So what? am i gonna wake up the next morning with a head ache because of my hang over and sitt down by my computer and find out that there arent anybody sharing files????? Is that what they expect??? HAHAHAHAHA I laugh straight in their faces! [ + quote]
zoaok (Newbie) 2 August 2003 14:30
LETS ALL STOP BUYING ,SET A MONTH WHEN NO ONE BUYS THIS WOULD SEND A MESSAGE. LETS ORGANIZE A MOVEMENT NOW!!!!!! [ + quote]
ICEPIMP (Member) 2 August 2003 15:06
easier said then done... we are like 20 peeps on this discussion.. and if we stop buying i dont really think they give a crap.. but its a law no one will follow anyway.. [ + quote]
twolittle (Newbie) 3 August 2003 3:00
Kazaa came from Sweden too. Anyhow, who thinks the law is going to change a thing? You think the police will be wanting to waste their time on chasing file sharers when they could spend their time solving abuse, rape and violence cases? You don't think there would be an uproar in Sweden if someone would be sentenced to two years in jail for sharing files? Who do you think the newspapers sympathize with? The politicians, big business or the common man? Who do you think people sympathize with. Make no mistake, their will be a heated debate. There will be demonstrations. But probably not before anyone has been charged. And frankly, I don't think they'll dare to charge anyone for sharing files. The law is just there to please big business (RIAA etc.) The law came as a response to a directive from the European Union, so they won't come and help the P2P users in Sweden. This is just the beginning people, this is going to spead worldwide quickly. There will en encryption, anonymous solutions etc. File sharing simply won't cease to exist because of a silly little law. [ + quote]
twolittle (Newbie) 3 August 2003 3:07
And yes, trying to ban P2P would open up opportunities for organized crime! Thanks for the mob, government! Complain to the minister in charge: -->thomas.bodstrom@justice.ministry.se<-- And his co-workers: http://www.justitie.regeringen.se/bodstrom/medarbetare.htm More: http://www.justitie.regeringen.se/inenglish/ [ + quote]
Shegax (Junior Member) 3 August 2003 4:58
our rights are wittling away Shega (adrenaline Is the closest Total freedom) [ + quote]
Stakker (Inactive) 3 August 2003 5:53
http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/fileshare/2003/0714p2p2.html "Freenet is reporting a threefold increase in traffic and sharply increased donations since the RIAA announced it would begin targeting individual users" As u said twolittle....encryption.. It seems to be the wave of the future thanx to theese laws...great work politicians [ + quote]
beezee (Newbie) 5 August 2003 4:03
Wow.. this is really something. And obvioulsy this hasnt been the first time this issue has been raised. Anyhow, (even though im not situated in Sweden), all i can say to the government is that, if they intend on placing the law upon sweden, then you might as well start building extensions to the sweden prisions. There are far too many people who use P2P programs, but too little space to accomodate these 'prisioners' Haha.. another story yet again.. [ + quote]
Ghostdog (Senior Member) 7 August 2003 11:07
I feel sorry for the neighbours. [ + quote]
appear (Inactive) 11 September 2003 21:52
Just a little quote from the article I just read on this site so you know what i'm reacting to: "The Swedish government is proposing a law which would require the permission from the copyright owner before any music, video, photo or text material can be spread on the net." Excuse me???!!! The internet is a gold mine of opportunities for any artist. Which fool would actually sabotage his/her own career? [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 11 September 2003 21:54