Swedish Recording Industry Police Slapped On The Wrist For Breaking Privacy Rule

from the small-price-to-pay dept

Back in March, we wrote about how the Swedish entertainment industry helped get the police to raid an ISP to get data on people accused of file sharing. At the time, there were questions about whether or not this violated strict privacy rules in Sweden. Now, the Swedish Data Inspection Board agrees that the Swedish Anti-Piracy Board went too far in collecting this data, but it's unclear what kind of punishment has been doled out. Also, it appears the Data Inspection Board didn't say anything about the fact that the only reason the APB knew there was unauthorized file sharing going on was because they planted the evidence themselves -- which seems like a much bigger crime than just violating privacy laws. Of course, the recording industry probably doesn't care that much, as the hype over all of this helped them convince the government to pass an incredibly restrictive law that completely bans the downloading of unauthorized material (rather than just the distribution of that material).