stories filed under: "sweden"
Sweden's Anti-Piracy Law Boost Market For Encryption Technology
from the keep-whac'ing-that-mole dept
With Sweden's new antipiracy law in effect, it seems that one industry is getting a nice boost: apparently there's a lot of new interest in encrypting your internet traffic, and services that provide encrypted VPN services are getting lots of new business. This, once again, points out that near total pointlessness in playing Whac-A-Mole over file sharing. It just become an endless game where each side continues to elevate itself, and it makes it that much more difficult in the end for the entertainment industry to do what it will inevitably be forced to do anyway: start building business models that embrace file sharing. But the further they push users of such services underground, the more and more difficult they'll find it to embrace these services down the road. Each attempt to knock out these services or their users only comes around to backfire on the industry itself.Filed Under: antipiracy, encryption, ipred, sweden
Swedish Antipiracy Law Goes Into Effect... Internet Traffic Drops
from the coincidence? dept
A new antipiracy law went into effect in Sweden on Wednesday, allowing copyright holders to demand the IP addresses from ISPs if a court finds that there's evidence of illegal activity -- and, as News.com notes, internet traffic took a major dip in Sweden, though it's not entirely clear if the two things are connected (though, it notes a similar dip occurred, back when The Pirate Bay was taken offline a few years ago). Not surprisingly, some audio book publishers wasted no time in trying to use the law, filing lawsuits to get information on certain file sharers. Sweden, as many of you know, has had very consumer-friendly copyright laws for quite some time. The departure from this (and the introduction of other new laws that are being pushed) has come from massive international pressure, usually starting with the American entertainment industry. It will be worth watching how the country reacts to increased and more draconian copyright rules.Filed Under: anti-piracy, copyright, identification, laws, sweden
Swedish Indie Band Release Only One Copy Of Their Latest Song Via eBay Art Project
from the it's-the-souvenir dept
Sweden is home, of course, to the folks who run The Pirate Bay, but it's also the home of numerous indie bands and indie labels that are doing some really interesting experiments that focus on embracing the opportunities and possibilities presented by technology, rather than fighting against it all. Dan Sellberg writes in to alert us to an amusing experiment by the band Bob Hund, who is releasing a new song, called Fantastiskt, but they're doing so by selling the only copy in existence of the song on eBay as an art project:"Fantastiskt" will be sold and delivered as an art piece comprising; the original master dubplate vinyl (the only existing copy) mounted on a real working turntable with cover art, song lyrics and monogram etched onto the lid by the artist Martin Kann.
The Pirate Bay Closing Arguments: Since We Can't Get The Real Infringers, We Should Blame Everything On These Guys
from the interesting-logic dept
As the closing arguments are being heard in The Pirate Bay lawsuit in Sweden, there seems to be some rather tortured reasoning by the entertainment industry that's quite troubling if the court accepts it. Representatives for the entertainment industry keep claiming that the claims of "losses" from the entertainment industry (including one guy who claimed that all of the industry's troubles could be pinned on "piracy") should be taken as fact, and the professor who discussed numerous studies showing this was untrue shouldn't be listened to. But the most troubling of all may be this:The police can't possibly go after all TPB's users and the defendants are therefore responsible for the whole damage claim, he argued, adding that they are free to claim money from their users.So, because they are too incompetent to deal with the actual problem, they should put all of the blame on the four guys they happened to round up. Doesn't anyone realize how ridiculous a precedent that would set? There's also the claim that damages should cover "the damage in goodwill" to the entertainment industry. Has it not occurred to them that the damage in goodwill wasn't from The Pirate Bay, but the industry's idiotic response to services like The Pirate Bay? Hopefully the court sees through such tortured reasoning.
Filed Under: closing arguments, liability, sweden, trial
Companies: the pirate bay
Prosecutors Change Pirate Bay Charges Again; Weak Evidence Exposed
from the it-took-them-two-years-to-prepare-this? dept
Before the trial of The Pirate Bay started in Sweden, it seemed like the defendants were being a bit brash in declaring the whole trial a spectacle, with no real legal basis. While I have a difficult time seeing how The Pirate Bay is guilty of being anything other than a search engine, I had assumed (at the very least) that in the two or so years that Swedish prosecutors and various entertainment industry lawyers were preparing the case that they would at least present a competent case. So far, they haven't shown that at all. First they were forced to drop half the charges on the second day of the case, after realizing that half the charges didn't apply. Then, the prosecutors have been called out repeatedly for introducing new evidence, against the rules of the court. Then, there was the snafu of asking a proclaimed Pirate Bay user to talk about how The Pirate Bay is bad.The stumbling has only continued. It started with the prosecution modifying some of the remaining charges, as they once again seem to have realized that what they charged these guys with doesn't apply. Isn't that the sort of thing you're supposed to do well before the case is actually in the trial stage? Then, they put some of the anti-piracy investigators on the stand, where it was quickly shown that they were technically incompetent -- and the examples they were showing may have been found via The Pirate Bay, but didn't involve The Pirate Bay at all in the actual sharing of content (which makes sense, since The Pirate Bay doesn't host any content itself). When challenged on whether or not the file sharing actually involved The Pirate Bay's trackers, the IFPI's Magnus Martensson admitted: "I think I've said this three times, that I just assumed it." Great bit of "evidence" there.
Furthermore, Martensson was asked about how using The Pirate Bay differed from using Google, and he appeared unaware that Google could be used to find torrents. Yes, this is the guy in charge of "anti-piracy" efforts, admitting when questioned that "I don't know about Google." Did it really take this long for the prosecution to assemble such a weak case?
Filed Under: magnus martensson, sweden, trial
Companies: the pirate bay
When You Pick An Author To Represent Swedish Authors Angry At The Pirate Bay, Maybe Don't Pick A Pirate Bay Fan
from the just-a-suggestion dept
Who knows who is actually going to win the trial of The Pirate Bay in Sweden, but you have to admit that the prosecution has been screwing up left and right. The latest is almost comical in its ridiculousness. Apparently the lawyer representing the movie industry, Monique Wadsted, asked a novelist friend of hers, named Carina Rydberg, to gather up some quotes from other authors on how evil The Pirate Bay was for their careers. The idea was to use those quotes in her closing remarks. Rydberg, ever the good friend, posted to a Facebook group of Swedish authors:"My friend Monique Wadsted, who represents the movie and gaming industry in the trial against The Pirate Bay, needs comments from creators and authors on these issues. She is currently preparing her closing arguments and would like to end it with a message from Swedish authors. It can't be long -- only 30 seconds -- so we're talking one-liners here."That all seems reasonable enough. As TorrentFreak points out in the link above, there are probably plenty of authors out there who haven't realized how to leverage file sharing to their own advantage, and they have every right to have their say. The problem, however, is that Rydberg doesn't appear to be in that camp. In that very same Facebook group, Rydberg has previously talked about using The Pirate Bay and how it's been helpful to her, even encouraging people to pirate her own out of print books. Torrent Freak highlights some of her earlier comments:
"Since I know that we the authors are affected by file-sharing, I think this is an excellent chance to take a stand. [...] I'll try to write something and would like to encourage members to do the same. [...] Furthermore, Monique would love to see us coming to the court in person. As things look now, the whole situation is dominated by the pirates."
"Because I want to watch movies that can neither be rented anymore nor bought on the Internet. I want to read books that are out of print and will cost you 750 British pounds on eBay. For that reason, I want The Pirate Bay to stay. At the moment, I'm trying to download John Schlesinger's 'The Day of the Locust'; it takes time and it's not even certain I'll get a copy that is watchable - but at the same time I have no idea how to get the damn flick any another way...."Not exactly the "spokesperson" the movie industry was probably looking for. Rydberg has apparently been rushing around trying to edit those old posts, but, of course, copies live on, elsewhere -- and she's also found to have commented similarly elsewhere. Perhaps she should have brought that up with Wadsted before agreeing to make statements trashing The Pirate Bay for court proceedings.
"The Pirate Bay is an invaluable source for content that publishers, record labels and movie studios for some reason can't or won't offer. If someone on The Pirate Bay chose to download the book I wrote in 1989 I would have no objection to that. That novel is practically impossible to get hold of and as an author I want to be read."
Filed Under: carina rydberg, monique wadsted, sweden, trial
Companies: the pirate bay
Prosecutors Drop Half The Charges Against The Pirate Bay
from the research-anyone? dept
We avoided reporting on The Pirate Bay trial yesterday because not much of interest actually happened. It was (as The Pirate Bay folks intended) more of a spectacle than anything interesting. However, this morning, the prosecutors dropped half the charges against the defendants, apparently after realizing that The Pirate Bay did not copy any files directly or produce any copyrighted materials for download. While the entertainment industry talking heads are trying to play down the significance of this, it is really rather stunning. Prosecutors have been working on this case (with tremendous assistance from the industry and even foreign government representatives) for well over a year. You would have thought that sometime during that process they would have examined how The Pirate Bay works, and whether or not it actually copies files. It kinda makes you wonder what the prosecution has been doing all this time.Filed Under: sweden, trial
Companies: the pirate bay
Swedish Newspaper Has Tremendous Success 'Beta Testing' Article On The Pirate Bay
from the good-for-them dept
Last week, in talking about how the Wall Street Journal had laid off its librarians, I suggested that newspapers could start trying a more "open research" system where they ask their community to help them with the research. To be honest, I was cheating a bit in writing that -- as I already knew of a newspaper testing exactly that concept. However, I wanted to see the responses from people before pointing that example out. And, of course, I got some angry responses (especially from librarians, actually). I tried to make it clear that I know librarians are quite good at what they do, and aren't easily "replaced" by crowdsourced research -- but that if you are getting rid of librarians, why not use a more open approach to getting research done?So... on to the experiment where that's actually happening. Swedish news organization Sydsvenskan was working on a feature piece for this past weekend all about what's happening to journalism -- from the economics to the technology to the culture. But, last week, a few days before the article was set to run, the folks writing it uploaded a "beta" draft version to The Pirate Bay and asked anyone who wanted to look at it, to check it out. And check it out they did. They provided a bunch of additional info, including some corrections -- and ideas for future pieces. In other words, it was a huge success in using the community to help do the research, even on such a controversial topic. The writers admitted that some got upset at the experiment (especially the idea that they might be "legitimizing" The Pirate Bay on the eve of the trial), but that, as an experiment, the project seemed quite worthwhile.
Filed Under: beta test, news, newspaper, research, sweden
Companies: sydsvenskan, the pirate bay
Pirate Bay Trial In Sweden To Be Broadcast Online
from the good-news dept
We're getting close to the start of the big Pirate Bay trial in Sweden that hopefully will settle the question of whether or not running a torrent tracker search engine is legal in that country. Apparently, the trial is being held in a rather small courtroom, and there was some fear that this would significantly limit media access (especially since all media requests were supposedly being screened to make sure that the reporters "had no connection to the movement" -- whatever that means). The good news, however, is that the court has agreed to the request from The Pirate Bay to stream the audio from the trial. Should be worth paying attention to what happens...Filed Under: broadcast, sweden, trial
Companies: the pirate bay
