First Swede Convicted For File-Sharing Now Cleared 278
Caine writes, "A 29-year old Swede, who was the first to be convicted under last year's new file-sharing laws, has been cleared on appeal. The court of appeal did not consider the screen dumps provided by the Antipiracy Bureau enough evidence to be able to convict the man. Since the crime does not carry a high enough punishment under Swedish law to allow for a search of the defendant's house, this means it will be virtually impossible to prove file-sharing crimes in the future."
Heh (Score:5, Interesting)
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The law is fair and does make sense. Not all crimes allow for a search of the person/property in question -- speeding, littering, etc. If the article summary is true, then the police broke the law by searching this guy's house. Pointing out your rights were violated is not a technicality.
Re:Heh (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Heh (Score:5, Funny)
Hot spy babes trying to become girlfriends to Pirate Bay geeks and get into their rooms!
Silicon boobs funded by the RIAA!
Re:Heh (Score:4, Funny)
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We should not be here cheering because a man wasn't convicted under this law due to lack of evidence.
The laws should be fair. If someone is breaking the law, we should WANT them to be caught. We should want the truth to be out.
When the people are cheering because the state can't use the mechanics of society to effectively enforce the law, that means there's something very fundimentally wrong.
But of course, when you're running a societal operating system that was bu
Re:Heh (Score:4, Interesting)
> When the people are cheering because the state can't use the mechanics of society to
> effectively enforce the law, that means there's something very fundimentally wrong.
Unless there's something fundamentally wrong with the law. Then it's a reason to cheer.
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> f the law is fundamentally wrong, then the law should be thrown out on its own merits, or lack thereof.
And it would be so nice if that actually happened.
Re:Heh (Score:4, Interesting)
So there are many in Sweden who think the law needs to be changed. Many feel that the copyright law was heavily changed in favour of the music industry and not taking into account peoples former rights regarding copyrighted materials.
Not to mention how easy screenshot fabrication is. (Score:2, Insightful)
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I don't know if it helps but...
It's not there to protect the murderer.
It's there to protect the rest of us.
Governments gone bad are much worse than an occasional murder or drug dealer getting off.
The founding fathers felt excessive government power was *the* ultimate threat.
The scary thing is... we are just handing it all away to the government these days.
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When people go on about how safe their schools are and how wonderful drug testing and E911 monitoring of their kids is, I want to scream at them, "You idiots. You are raising a generation of anti-American drones. You've
Re:What the fuck??? (Score:5, Insightful)
The body of case law that requires the prosecutor's office to ignore evidence that has been illegally obtained is designed to stop illegal police searches, period. If the police constantly get cases tossed out because they are illegally searching people, at some point, police management is going to start training the cop on the beat in how to properly and legally conduct a search, and the illegal searches will at least, get less common.
However, if your idea of being able to use the evidence anyway got a legal foothold, any idea of a search being illegal would quickly go out the door, and the police would be able, in practice, to search anyone, anywhere they wished.
Not the way to protect privacy, in my opinion.
As to your idea of punishing the cop that conducts the illegal search, well, that's another story. Rightly or wrongly, our justice system tends to protect the cop on the beat. Sometimes, I think it goes too far, but on balance, they ARE the ones putting their lives on the line for us, and some leeway should acrue for that sacrifice.
As to the punishment, that DOES happen, internally, and out of public view. Do you think that a cop that constantly wastes police time and resources AND prosecutorial time and resources by constantly conducting illegal searches that get cases tossed out DOESN'T get brought up short by his boss? I'll bet they do. Police agencies all over the world are constantly short of budget, personnel, and other resources. Prosecutors' offices are much the same. They can't just let these things go, because they waste time and money. Cops that search illegally on a regular basis get pulled off the street and get re-educated and retrained. Those that keep it up will eventually get canned.
I can understand your reasons for your rant - we all have gripes with the justice system; it's not even close to perfect. But I'd rather the system encourage the cops to obey the constitutional guarantees of freedom the Bill of Rights gives us than allow them to ignore them. Yes, criminals will get released. But most criminals aren't very smart - if the cops don't get them this time, they will the next.
You're not an ACLU member I guess... (Score:3, Informative)
Any governing body, given insufficient oversight, will subvert its charter - usually not to the benefit of the governed. Without the checks and balances of the law, we would be subject to the very conditions which kindled the American Revolution. Are you reall
Re:Heh (Score:5, Insightful)
Technicalities like that always amuse me, especially when they work out in favour of "the little guy". We have a few laws like that here in Canada, and I hope they don't change.
I don't consider this to be a technicality. I consider this to be the law working exactly as designed. Swedes consider privacy important, thus the police violating your privacy (seriously infringing your rights) in an attempt to find evidence of a much less serious matter is pretty idiotic. It would be like the police being allowed to shoot people they see speeding. It makes a lot of sense to me.
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Re:Heh (Score:5, Insightful)
It's true, but your argument puts it as exactly that - a technicality, where one law is rendered virtually unenforcable by another. In this case, privacy wins, and it would make sense for Sweden to simply remove the law from the books, since it's unenforcable clutter at this point in time.
I disagree. The law makes copyright infringement illegal, but not a serious crime. People may still be convicted of it, it is just that the evidence needs to come from something other than an invasion of privacy. People can still be convicted of this, just not en masse by some sort of automated system like the music distribution representatives would like. For yet another analogy, it may be illegal to smoke pot, but the cops can't invade your home to check without evidence. This does not mean the law can't be enforced, it just means they have to bust you in public places or when they break in with a different warrant.
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-- Ravensfire
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American: If they didn't stop, I guess they would. Me: That's dumber.
This is a real and serious problem. There are just too many stupid people in the world. Cops, even in the US, are not allowed to shoot fleeing shoplifters, or pretty much any other fleeing suspect that is not pointing a gun at them at the same time. Personally, I don't have a strong stance on whether or not police should carry guns. The US system is broken as we have no punishments for violating the authority given to a police officer.
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FWIW, our rank-and-file police officers have consistently resisted calls for more general arming of those in the service, for a long time now. Most of the "initiatives" to arm the police more widely come from the higher-ups and the politicos, not the guys who are going to be faced with the decision to pull the trigger. Obviously there are times when a police response involving firearms is called for, but personally, I'm happy that this be the exception, and the guys with the specialist weapons be specially
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Does a fleeing criminal always know a cop isn't allowed to shoot, or might he pull a gun and go to shoot the cop, thereby giving the cop an excuse to pull his gun?
It is the law in every jurisdiction across the whole US, as far as I know, and it is general knowledge for anyone who watches TV. Anyone with a clue knows, but that does not mean everyone will always know or remember. Does it matter? If a criminal is willing to pull a gun instead of surrender, then shooting them is probably not the worst thing
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American: If they didn't stop, I guess they would.
That guess would be wrong. Deadly force is not permitted to stop someone suspected of committing this kind of crime. However, if the shoplifter was in Brazil, I think the police could use deadly force. I have always been amazed by the Brazilian legal system. There's no death penalty and the maximum penalty for any crime is 30 years, although in practice it's really 29 years because
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Having a gun is like having a condom - it's much better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.
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shoplifter (or a naked, drug-addled running man
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You haven't heard of Noone? (Score:3, Funny)
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And thus dies the Slashdot ratings system. I think you meant "+1, Demonstrates by example"
I'm off to Sweden (Score:5, Funny)
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I don't disagree, I just wouldn't call it confiscation - the money goes back to the community, and ensures everyone has equal access to health care, education, and so on and so forth.
I happen to like that (living in Denmark, which has a social structure that pretty much resembles the swedish, coming from a low-income fa
Re:I'm off to Sweden (Score:5, Funny)
Ungersh veer hurne, a-gede hu genish gadoo. Yay bursht der horne bersh ter mmmm BORK BORK BORK!
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We swedes generally don't mind that people don't speak Swedish as long as they know at least some English. The younger generations usually even welcome the opportunity to polish their language skills.
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Welcome to Sweden - we usually speak better English than the average american. At least we can separate they're, their and there both in pronounciation, use and spelling!
*g*
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Hej Då, Y'all.
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I am an educated, highly valuable IT employee (systems engineer) so I don't think it would be incredibly difficult to find someone who wanted my services, but I don't even know where to start. And yes, I am fed up enough with life here i
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/Mikael
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that the written and spoken language at work IS English. The neighbouring
country (Norway), where I'm stuck, is about the same in most things, but reportedly has
lower taxes. We've got Opera as one example of a realtively big international
business, and IT workers in general speak English fairly well.
The tax thing in Sweden isn't too bad once you're on Swedish wages, anyway.
Food's cheaper over there than here, which is why you see flock
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Unfortunately, I don't think it's that easy to move to Sweden, especially if you don't speak Swedish.
I'd figure the hard part would be convincing your parents to buy a house with a basement in Sweden, but what do I know?
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So where do you go when you want to smoke some weed and download some MP3's? If the EU is really serious about cooperation between member states, they really need to address this issue before any more progress can be made!
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Apparently you have never heard of ABBA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABBA [wikipedia.org]
or Ace of Base http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_of_Base [wikipedia.org]
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Or Upsala. Either is fine (Upsala is the older spelling).
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If older spellings are ok, then how about older names... where'd we be if some people wrote "uppsala", some "upsala" and others "östra aros"... Some might view "uppsala" and "upsala" as just different spellings, but to some such a change means more than just
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Screen dumps inadmissable? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Screen dumps inadmissable? (Score:5, Interesting)
Courts do not have the technical expertise to understand how pathetic and stupid it is to use a screenshot of a common program running as a evidence in a trial that changes the outcome of millions of people. I can accept you get a fine for it, but this was a legal matter which carried a conviction. Not anywhere near where you want evidence like that.
Best part is, they "trusted" the evidence since it came from such a renomed organization, namely the people paid of by the entertainment industry to throw their own customers in jail. Not exactly a outfit I'd enjoy taking care of my savings..
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What the hell, man? What did I ever do to you?!?
Wait a second... (Score:5, Funny)
The ads on TFA say it all (Score:5, Funny)
Learn Swedish for free
Re:The ads on TFA say it all (Score:5, Interesting)
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I wouldn't say that. Speaking for myself, my spoken English is absolutely atrocious (never have much of a reason to practice it), but I do believe Scandinavians are good at understanding both written and spoken English, so if you're touristing here making yourself understood isn't much of a problem. There is an age barrier here; some eldery never learned English -- my grandmother for instance hardly knows a word.
There's always the Mastering Swedish [slayradio.org] if you want to pick some of it up :-)
Also, some say alc
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Is tehre any game developing company there (dont mind if it is small or medium)?
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I, for one, welcome our new Swedish overlords, but welcome even more our new Swedish overladies!
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Tell me about the piracy situation in Stockholm.. (Score:2, Funny)
Vincent: Well it's legal but it ain't 100% legal. But that don't matter because if they log your IP address connected to a tracker it's illegal for them to search your aprtment. In Stockholm that's a right the cops don't have.
Jules: That's all there is to it. I'm fuckin' goin'.
Vincent:I know, baby. You'd dig it the most.
"I thought we had what we needed without conducting a search. It is not permitted to carry out a search for t
How it sharing ever became illegal (Score:4, Insightful)
Psychological benefit (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Psychological benefit (Score:4, Insightful)
Hence the IP lobbyists adoption of the misnomer intellectual 'property' rather than intellectual monopoly, despite the actual nature of the subject.
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Don't forget people -- Europeans in particular -- get very wigged-out when it is suggested that people actually have the right to get paid for the work they do. (And the fact that it is their societly duty to provide art, for free, that everyone can sit around and celebrate).
Look, you can argue with the merits of the implementation, but pretending you don't
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Then I respectfully suggest that you study some introductory economics for a while. The point of copyright and related laws is to offer something to those who create useful works of art as an incentive to share them. Of course there's no benefit to society to give up the right to share the art that's already available, but how many of those works would have been r
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Of course, you must also realize that copyright isn't the only possible incentiv
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Your sig seems a tad ironic, considering the tone of your post.
It might only be a technicality.... (Score:2)
Jesus christ. (Score:2)
Thanks! (Score:2)
Seriously, I'm happy to see a screenshot of a DirectConnect client not being good enough evidence for a court. To a good Photoshopper, you could just as well give the court a scribbled down note listing an IP address and tell them it's proof. These things are so easy to tamper with, so one should be able to assume these get thrown out of court. However, with how things are going
Re:Not exactly 'scot free' (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Not exactly 'scot free' (Score:4, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by
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Completely OT, but very cool to see Australia is sitting at #3 :).
Can't say I'd disagree...
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http://hane05.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!908541C1D7
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/ Grumpy Swede
Re:Not exactly 'scot free' (Score:5, Interesting)
There is a common belief, especially in the US, that Sweden has a higher rate of suicide than other countries; this is actually a myth, as Sweden has an average suicide rate. The myth was probably started because the secular government of Sweden started to measure suicide statistics openly before other countries did. President Eisenhower saw this as a chance to promote his political ideology, and maintained that the statistics showed Sweden was the country of "free love, high taxes and suicide" (none of this was particularly true at the time). Also, the dark, relatively cold climate of Sweden in the winter has added fuel to this myth. (see "Suicide and Season" below).
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_rates [wikipedia.org]
Eisenhower quote (Score:2)
Re:FUCK! (Score:5, Funny)
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Male or female?
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Not that there's anything wrong with that.
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The Finns were highly tactically superior, but lost quite a bit of their land (roughly between a third and a fourth).
Not quite that much; the real number is about one tenth.
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Re:Yay (Score:5, Interesting)
The usual rejoinder for which is, who defines criminality or terrorist behaviour? What stops that from becoming broader?
Considering some of the behaviour currently being flagged as suspicious by over-enthusiastic law-enforcement, not much, apparently.
Ditto copyright. DRM has already given much greater control over "copyrighted" material than copyright ever did, and the lobbying doesn't appear to be slowing down. How long before it becomes illegal to read anything without paying per word? It's nice to know there will be some countries where it won't be illegal to use your computer, or acquire information for yourself.
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*quickly pulls out a snake halfway inserted in his ass*
Hey, now wait a minute, sir!
I am looking into moving soon....maybe Sweden will get a look see....
Oh yeah, I have a room free!