How Come The MPAA Is Helping The FBI Train Swedish Police?

from the seems-a-bit-outside-their-job-description dept

Mon, Feb 19th 2007 11:06pm — Mike Masnick

Last year Swedish law enforcement, at the urging of the US government (who, of course, was being pushed by the entertainment industry) raided the Pirate Bay and took all its servers (along with many others as well), declaring it a "significant blow" against piracy. In retrospect, many are considering the raid "botched." Not only did it fail to shut down the Pirate Bay (which was back up in a short time and became much more popular thanks to all the press coverage), it also pissed off a bunch of other companies whose servers were seized in the raid for no good reason. In response to the "botched" raid, it appears that the MPAA is now training a special group of Swedish anti-piracy police with the help of the FBI (found via Digg). This raises a ton of important questions -- that aren't easily answered by the information provided. First of all, which part of the "botching" required this response? Somehow, we think that they're probably a lot more upset that the service went right back up and became more popular -- but that's hardly something that police training is going to help with. Perhaps it's the collateral damage issue -- but, if that's the case, why would the MPAA be involved at all? That's not the MPAA's area of expertise at all. Even more importantly, why are the Swedish police taking its lessons from a private entity that is clearly biased, has been consistently wrong about the impact of piracy (remember when it insisted that VHS tapers were the Boston Strangler to the movie industry?) and doesn't follow its own rules anyway? On top of that, why then is the FBI helping the MPAA if this is really a civil dispute rather than a criminal one? It's time that law enforcement around the world started realizing that all of these enforcement efforts have little to do with actually protecting inherent rights -- and plenty to do with propping up an outdated understanding of a business model.

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17 Comments

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NP, 20 Feb 2007 @ 1:18am

That must be false
MPAA's interpretation of the laws in Europe has been shown to be false repeatedly.

[Recall DVD Jon's case in Norway that was pushed by the MPAA and US State Department, but the court decided that DVD Jon did nothing wrong.
It was even viewed as beneficial to break badly made locks, and this was before the anti-DRM of today.]

And so they would not be allowed to teach the police anything about copyright, because the police lawyers would not permit it. So this story must be false.
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A not so mindless american, 20 Feb 2007 @ 1:21am

Rofl, idiocy
This is just another point of interest for me. It clearly shows how the MPAA (and by proxy, the RIAA) don't actually know what piracy is. They claim its hurting them, but where's any hard evidence? I agree with y'all in saying they are propping up an outdated business model. They both need to wake up and smell the roses growing out of their mausoleums.
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- Phlatus the Elder, 20 Feb 2007 @ 6:29am
  
  Re: Rofl, idiocy
  "...the MPAA (and by proxy, the RIAA) don't actually know what piracy is."
  
  "Piracy," by definition, is armed robbery on the high seas, a crime of violence against persons. This isn't one of those "I consider it to mean..." words - it's defined by law.
  
  By applying the label to copyright violation (a crime against property - and intangible property at that) we overstate the seriousness of the act.
  
  No doubt the MP/RIAAs would love to see the bodies of offenders hanging from the gibbet, be it virtual or real. That's less apt to happen if we throw the bullshit flag at calling copyright violation "piracy."
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ScytheNoire, 20 Feb 2007 @ 4:12am

what does that last A stand for again?
I'm just wondering how it's legal for a civil matter, in America, gets a Federal Government American organization involved, in a Commercial American Corporation, to shove their nose in a European countries matters.

Someone needs to smack this **AA companies on the nose and send them back to where they belong, America. Hey idiots, that last A stands for America, so stay in your own damn country. If you don't like what is happening elsewhere, then keep your products out of those other countries and build yourself a nice big electronic wall (and physical one for that matter) and keep the rest of the big scary world from coming to destroy you.

Stupid America strikes again!
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- The infamous Joe, 20 Feb 2007 @ 4:33am
  
  Re: what does that last A stand for again?
  I enjoy how you say "Stupid America strikes again!" like we're sitting over here, happy about the **AA. I have no idea where you're from, but witless anti-american statements add nothing to your post, and make you seem childish and immature, to me anyway. Pride in your own country doesn't equal bashing other countries.
  
  These guys are loaded with money, and money makes things happen. In America, sure, and it seems in other countries, too. The can "shove their noses" in European matters because they have money and power, and it seems the Swedish government was either intimidated by, or won over with, that money and power.
  
  So, since the **AA is now poking around in European affairs, I cordially invite you to try and smack them on the nose, and see what it gets you.
  
  Oh, and before I forget, the last A stands for America, but that little word before that A that isn't added is "of" not "for". There's a difference.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 20 Feb 2007 @ 6:10am
    
    Re: Re: what does that last A stand for again?
    I disagree.
    
    I think this is indeed a "Stupid America Strikes Again" problem. If it were not for the "Stupid American" politicians being bought and paid for by the entertainment industry (which makes a killing off stupid americans) these groups would not have so much sway with the stupid american politicians, and would not be able to get away with so many "stupid american" policies.
    
    -- Signed: Quite Ashamed Stupid American
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    - The infamous Joe, 20 Feb 2007 @ 6:19am
      
      Re: Re: Re: what does that last A stand for again?
      Your arguement, while logical, fails around the time you read the title of this article.
      
      Hint: It's the second to last word in the title.
      
      I in no way say that we, as americans, have no blame here, I'm just saying that this isn't a case of "Stupid America strikes again!" because, well, it's about the Swedish government being "stupid".
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- G. Freedman, 21 Feb 2007 @ 8:51am
  
  Re: what does that last A stand for again?
  I'm from good 'ole Uncle Shugar land and I have to say I agree with you. I was taught early on that you never come uninvited (Unless you are bringing bakery.). America loves to yell back to Europe, "WW2!", anytime we get yelled at from across the Atlantic. We were invited 60+ years ago and I think that invite ran out when the wall came down in the late 80's.
  
  If the Sweeds want us there fine if the MPAA is invited to help fine. Otherwise our butts better hightail it back over the Atlantic and stay here. We have plenty of CENSORING and MONITORING over here to keep U.S. occupied.
  
  So rest assure we have our electronic walls being built and coming soon lots of barbed wire fence with them.
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_Jon, 20 Feb 2007 @ 5:15am

Because the **AA is on a jihad and nothing will stop them from worldwide domination...
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Overcast, 20 Feb 2007 @ 6:48am

Second only to the RIAA.

Soon comrade, the GLORIOUS RIAA will begin to sue and march in China, after that NOTHING WILL STOP THEM!

ALL HAIL, RIAA!!!

http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/021207.asp
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Tara, 20 Feb 2007 @ 6:57am

God that makes me mad. I live in Europe and don't want American law enforcement screwing up our lives over here! The RIAA and MPAA should both give up, Europeans now use ENCRYPTED file sharing that hides what people share, so the game is over guys!!! See http://www.gigatribe.com to see one example of the many different softwares on the market that allow people to share content in complete privacy!
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be free, 20 Feb 2007 @ 6:58am

stupid america vs stupid swedes
Sure, "America" is "stupid", and have a lot of aggressive, money mongering, power tripping companies and agencies -- even most American's know this. But how stupid are the Swedes who are buying into this? The level of stupidity and the "spreading of legs" at the whim of a Hollywood hat is staggering. A government's police engages in activities that are against its own laws against its own citizens, trained by a different countries lobby organization???. Can somebody say pride and self preservation. Nah, we Swedes like to be victims, a people held in check full if Lutheran guilt for our "bad ways". 20% of the Swedish population left the country in the mid-1900, to avoid prosecution from state and church, and we had many kings that couldn't even speak Swedish. Meaning to say that outside influence in politics is nothing new. Back in the days when we felt a need to be patted on the head, we we're close to become just another state in the Russian empire, and Hitler's army could use our "neutral" country in any way we could, -- so why not know? Sweden is just continuing its lack of backbone politics to please it's new master. USA. woff.
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Bob3000, 20 Feb 2007 @ 7:01am

Why Pirate Bay?
It's not the only or even largest or best bittorrent site - it's simply the most brazen in embarassing the *AA over and over again. :-)

BTW just laugh and move on about that gigatribe ad above - they've already been laughed off at Digg.
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Erv, 20 Feb 2007 @ 7:49am

MPAA the Gestapo
The MPAA is a mafia-like orgnization that is trying to write it's own laws. This is getting out of hand and they need to be shut down
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Anon, 20 Feb 2007 @ 8:47am

MPAA
Can you imagine a future run by the MPAA?

Scary.

Would make for a great SCI-FI horror flick though.
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Vamp, 20 Feb 2007 @ 9:30am

Shouldn't our FBI have something better to do... like protect our country. Running around helping big busness is what our country does best and we are starting to prove it
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Feb 2007 @ 8:44pm

What amazes me is that US tax dollars fund the agencies that are doing the training....in other words the American taxpayer is footing the bill for a private organization (the **AA's) to have its desires shoved down the throats of a foreign nation. I would have thought that tax dollars would be better spent funding something good for the public (i.e the taxpayers themselves) rather than support the whims of a private entity/corporation. Boy, the AA's sure do have a lot of sway with the government!
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