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Sweden file sharing case gets retrial

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Jan 2008 2:10 User comments (2)

Sweden file sharing case gets retrial In Sweden, a court case involving a man who had allegedly uploaded 23,000 music tracks and 30 movies to file sharing networks has gone to retrial. The decision in the case will have implications for the future of whether police can raid file sharer's homes in search of evidence.
The man, a 31 year old from Linköping, Sweden, was initially charged with making the music and movies available for unauthorized download. However, there have been doubts surrounding Sweden’s Anti-Piracy Agency’s (APB) use of "questionable investigative techniques" and so prosecutors have dropped all the music related charges.

Rick Falkvinge, leader of the Swedish Pirate Party, commented on the case. “The public prosecutor dropped the bulk of the charges but the record industry decided to pick up the dropped ball and press ahead as a private criminal charge (’enskilt åtal’), meaning they have to act as a prosecutor themselves before a judge and jury.”

On the side of the IFPI, lawyer Lars Gustafsson commented, “We maintain that the technical evidence is sufficient. We have received an inquiry from the court if we would like to continue with the music file-sharing as its own indictment and we have said we would."



The court did not drop the charges related to the movies and therefore ordered a retrial.

“It is remarkable that public funds are spent on redoing the trial despite the fact that the public prosecutor decided to drop most of the charges,”
Falkvinge added. “The record industry frequently states they have no desire to become a private police force, but these days, it looks like they more frequently put their foot than their money where their mouth is.”

Despite the dismissal of the music related charges, those relating to the movies can still prove to be costly if the man loses his case. In June 2006 a man was found guilty of uploading just one movie using DC, and the fine was equivalent to $2,500 USD.

Source:
TF

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2 user comments

111.1.2008 05:37
nobrainer
Inactive

Even the Swedish politicians are speaking out about the media studios and their continual rhetoric! They may be able to control the American government but each country has its own laws and America needs to understand that they do not control global law, YET!

http://torrentfreak.com/swedish-politici...t-lobby-080110/

Originally posted by above link:
Last week, seven Swedish MPs wrote to a prominent Swedish tabloid newspaper ‘Expressen’ to express their dissatisfaction with proposals for dealing with copyright infringers. Now, that number has increased to 13, and the issue seems to keep growing.

Initially, Karl Sigfrid, and 6 other MPs [Members of Parliament] wrote to Expressen (Swedish, English) to express their opposition to a plan proposed by Cecilia Renfors, a copyright analyst appointed by the Swedish government, in what Expressen called “Seven MPs defy the party line: Legalizing file sharing is not just the best solution, but the only solution”. Her plan was that ISPs would close down the connections of filesharers, preventing them from participating in any further copyright infringement. The condemnation for this was broad-based, from the Data inspection Board, the Competition Authority, all the way to the Swedish court of Appeal.

The message from the Moderate Party MPs to their Antipiratbyrån supporting colleagues was “be careful, they will never be satisfied”, drawing parallels to the earlier attempts to ban MP3 players, and VCRs, both areas in which, having failed to ban, industry groups are now making a profit from selling content.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 11 Jan 2008 @ 5:38

223.1.2008 16:46

Work in progress.

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