AfterDawn: News

Sweden to sign controversial anti-piracy law

Sweden's Council on Legislation has suggested that it will not stop a new law that will make it much easier to arrest suspected Internet pirates. The law will go into effect during April 2009.

The government -backed law would give copyright holders the ability to request personal information of any suspected pirate based on their IP address.



The law itself is based on a broader EU directive but the Council on Legislation stated that Sweden's regulation goes much further than is required by the directive.

Sweden's proposal would allow the copyright holders to request the personal information if they believe there is "probable cause" of a copyright law being broken. They can then use the info to begin legal proceedings seeking monetary damages.

The EU directive only states however that "people should have the right to access information in connection with a trial."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Oct 2008 15:29

• Previous article

• OWC launches Blu-ray/HD DVD burner with multiple inputs

• Next article

• Dell and UMG team up for DRM-free music

• 9 comments

• Leningrad

  Well thats the end of the pirate bay. RIP

  25.10.2008 16:07 #1

• jookycola

  Unless they move the servers to Korea, Iran or Venuzuela. The latter 2 countries would never help the U.S..
  
  Piracy is being attacked from all angles. It's the digital extent of "the building is surrounded, there is no escape" ISP's are clamping down with bandwidth caps/BW throttling, studios are fighting with uploading fake torrents/trojans, the last barrier to ending downloading is to pay off the swedish gov enough to bend to their will and allow them to prosicute. I think TPB may be gone in 5 years, but something else will pop up. The studios spent a lot of $$$ just to stop TPB, but that's just one fish in a much larger pond.
  
  They are closing in though and that sucks.

  25.10.2008 16:18 #2

• varnull

  "suspected".. I would like the Sweedish people to demand of their lawmakers that some actual "proof" is provided before any illegal action is taken by isp's and the cartels against citizens.
  
  How would you like a heap of threatening legal settlement letters arriving or getting arrested just on the proof of a number which can change at any time at random.. and not relate to you in any way at all?
  
  We used this approach in the UK and got the "3 strikes" law scrapped before it even got off the ground.
  
  Don't give up your "habeus corpus" rights in the name of profits for fat rich corporations.. An IP being seen in a list is no more than hearsay.. it cannot be verified against you in actuality without the isp's or the government running an illegal wiretap on every single citizen at all times..
  
  I see big trouble on the horizon.
  

  
  
  Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work. The flower of carnage-shura no hana..

  25.10.2008 16:24 #3

• Pop_Smith

  Quote:The government -backed law would give copyright holders the ability to request personal information of any suspected pirate based on their IP address.Well this wouldn't effect TPB at all, while I can't currently find it I do know that the TPB admins have posted their addresses and a contact phone number on the site so their "information" is readily available.
  
  Also, it just says "You can request personal information" wither or not the information is given is another matter.
  
  Peace

  25.10.2008 17:38 #4

• Leningrad

  It will, copyright holders will use this law to thier advantage. Though thats true, TPB is really the monkey in the middle right now and it being shut down will be inevitable (remember what happened to grokster?) but then a new bittorent search engine will pop up and then the MPAA will pay another $$$ to shut it down as well, then again and then again and then again and until the next cycle of time they will never stop hunting them down it is just a futile attempt. I HIGHLY reccomend that those executuves at the RIAA sign up for a CAT scan on thier brains to see if it is functioning properly. No matter how hard copyright holders attempt to seize torrent search engines piracy will continue. piracy can not be stopped.
  
  A good analogy: imagine if the music industry was an antibiotic, and pirates were bacteria. You could kill alot of bacteria with some antibiotics but then if use the same bloody tactics over an over again they will gain resistance. think about it, macrovision did thier analog copying prevention on VHS cassetes. but they used it to much and then new mods came out so that pirates could crack their VCRs and play what ever they want. DRM was effective at first but then a superbug strain called the analog hole came out and then pirates could easily copy DRM content. Its ironic really, because DRM was a dream-come-true for copyright holders believe it or not. Pretty much pirates gained biological resistance to nearly every tactic up theier sleeves.

  25.10.2008 18:12 #5

• sssharp

  I am going to call the govt, a person i know does it(haha) whom i really hate. All they need is suspension to start not proof. Now that I am thinking there are a few more people I very much dislike.

  25.10.2008 18:58 #6

• engage16

  Tracking you via your IP address... If I'm not mistaken doesn't your IP change?

  27.10.2008 00:20 #7

• Pop_Smith

  Originally posted by engage16: Tracking you via your IP address... If I'm not mistaken doesn't your IP change?Most of the time your ISP assigns a new IP every few months or even every time you reset your modem. That is unless you paid for a "Static IP".
  
  However, ISP probably keep track of who has which IP and when they have it.
  
  This way if the government comes after the ISP for a user pirating stuff they say "Fred McDude had IP 170.11.102.20 at the time the pirating was discovered, here is his email address/home address" or whatever the government is looking for.

  27.10.2008 00:46 #8

• varnull

  But there are big holes in that.. I can use your ip for the number I declare to a tracker then grab it back with similar to packet sniffing technology.. Next step in the war.
  

  
  
  Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work. The flower of carnage-shura no hana..

  27.10.2008 01:01 #9