File-Sharer Convicted in Sweden’s Biggest P2P Case
Written by enigmax on May 05, 2008A 31 year old file-sharer escaped prison this morning when he received a heavy fine and a suspended sentence for uploading music and movies. The court refrained from putting the defendant in prison, saying that the music industry needs to take some responsibility for the current situation.
After a retrial, a 31 year old man from Linköping, Sweden, was found guilty this morning in the District Court.
The court decided that for uploading 4,500 music tracks and 30 movies with the filesharing application Direct Connect, the defendant should receive a heavy fine and a suspended prison sentence. Initially the file-sharer had been accused of uploading around 23,000 music tracks, but Sweden’s Anti-Piracy Agency’s (APB) use of questionable investigative techniques forced the prosecutor to withdraw some of the charges.
In its verdict, the Linköping District Court decided that due to the large number of files involved in the case, handing out just fines wasn’t enough, hence the suspended sentence. This situation of sharing many thousands of files at once affects the BitTorrent user a lot less than those using other methods of sharing, which is probably why the music industry prefers to target users using ‘folder sharing’ clients, such as DirectConnect, LimeWire and KaZaA.
Thankfully, the court denied the prosecutor’s request to have the man thrown in prison and said that this is “a task for the government, that by legislative means or in other ways take the necessary actions” to come to a solution to the problem. In fact, the court implied that the reason it issued only a suspended sentence was because the copyright industry has to take some responsibility for the situation it finds itself in.
Although escaping prison would’ve been his number one aim, the fine received by the file-sharer will hurt. In Sweden there is a system of “day fines” that is regulated by how large an income the guilty party has. In the case of day fines, two figures are given, for example ‘40 day fines of 50 kronor’ (that is to say, 2000 kronor). The first figure shows how seriously the court considers the offense (culpability) and the latter figure is determined depending on the accused’s financial situation.
He was given 40 day fines, amounting to some 10000 kronor ($1650) and must also pay the court costs of 44670 kronor ($7360).
Minister of Justice, Beatrice Ask, doesn’t want to comment on whether she sees the sentence as positive or negative. However, she commented on its effects:
“A consequence of the court having increased the sanctions in this case is that it will be easier to make ISPs give out information on IP addresses [in the future]. This of course affects the possibilities to act against these kinds of crimes.”
Morgan Gerdin, acting for the defense says the sanctions are too severe: “The District Court hasn’t observed the technical evidence. It is not possible from that evidence to conclude that my client has been filesharing. He should have been found not guilty.”
Antipiratbyrån says the case is important: “It is obvious that the court takes the scope of the infringement seriously,” says Sara Lindbäck, a lawyer at Swedish Anti Pirate Bureau.
However, Magnus Eriksson, spokesperson for Piratbyrån, doesn’t see any significance at all in the verdict: “The outcome of the verdict is based on the amount of files shared by this person. With more modern filesharing software [BitTorrent], it isn’t possible to see all the files that one person is sharing.”
He went on to say that most filesharers can continue their hobby without risking prosecution.
There were fears that a conviction in this case which resulted in prison time could open up the possibility that in the future, police could be allowed to search file-sharers’ homes in pursuit of evidence, something forbidden up to now. It remains unclear if a suspended sentence is enough to change the position.
In September 2007, the defendant started a fund to cover the fines. He has raised 7300 kronor so far.
Previously: isoHunt and MPAA Debate Legality of BitTorrent Sites
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49 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
god dam those people….
Fucking ratbastards I mean wtf. Jail and crap sure its illegal but get real they give it away free on the radio but people can’t share it on the internet the mpaa has way too much fucking pull.
Maybe its me, but I find it a diffiocult read, what is now the summery?
1 Person pays a lot of money and walks? 2 the government cant use police to raid houses?
23,000 tracks? but when they prosecute BT sites they only bring up like, 5? What the hell?
[quote comment="374447"]Maybe its me, but I find it a diffiocult read, what is now the summery?
1 Person pays a lot of money and walks? 2 the government cant use police to raid houses?[/quote]
No, he means that, something needs to be done by the legislative branch of the Government, executive is getting sick and tired throwing people in jail for shit crimes like such was presented here.
40 day fines of 50 kronor = 2000 SEK = 330 USD
that’s like nothing? neither 4500 nor 23000 is a “large number of files” in my opinion..
hmmmZ -> its not 330$ he needs to pay, its 9010$ . .
He was given 40 day fines, amounting to some 10.000 kronor ($1650) and he also must pay the court costs of 44670 kronor ($7360).
Ummm.. Sweden is a member of the EU. I thought the EU decided it is unconstitutional to give out IP numbers????
it is unconstitutional to give out IP UNLESS it is related to a possible criminal conviction which is why they want prison sentence cause then the police can search anyone’s house.
however, the police have already been quoted as saying that ‘they already have enough things to worry about and they do not deem file sharing a serious crime’. that is a good thing!
the actual fine he got was only 10 000 kr but he was bent over on the court fee’s which were 45 000 kr. thats a fair chunk.
what does a suspended sentence mean?
eagerly awaiting to read the actual swedish article as i think the translation or person who wrote missed some stuff but thanks for trying!!
for my fellow vikings…
http://www.na.se/artikel.asp?intId=1326875
for the english speaking world
http://www.thelocal.se/11550/20080505/
A suspended sentence means he won’t go to jail. This is pretty backward isn’t it? Kind of barbaric treatment. It’s expected from those pimps but making available is not copyright infringement. Proven distribution may be but accessing his files by entrapment is authorized and thus can’t be an offense. This is borne out in the latest high court precedent which was conveniently neglected. Sure this is another country but common sense should be the same everywhere. Having music on the PC proves nothing.
it’s safe to say he’s owned
Suspended sentece usually means that if you are convicted, not just arrested, for the same type of offence as the one you’ve gotten the suspended sentence for, that first sentence is added to any new sentence, and you’ll have to go to prison, at least for that first sentence duration.
The pity is there is no need for anyone to expose their ip address.
Anonymous p2p has come a long way since MUTE, Freenet and ANts p2p.
It is now fast, very fast, friendly and cute as well as keeping you ip address private.
A good example is web based Dargens http://www.Dargens.com other example can be found here http://www.anonymous-p2p.org/kerjodando.html
Remember what it said in the article:
“A consequence of the court having increased the sanctions in this case is that it will be easier to make ISPs give out information on IP addresses [in the future]. This of course affects the possibilities to act against these kinds of crimes.”
thats what people get for using p2p, anyhow it is soort of strange to convince someone since they cant prove that person x was the person who was behind his computer.
First of all let me say from Sweden that Minister of Justice, Beatrice Ask is a total bitch who has long since been bought up by the MAFIAA and her views on filesharing have been pretty open and one sided to the industry. She has been trying for ages to get RIAA style sueing actions here (just do a quick search on google on the bitch’s name)
Makes me wonder where are all the Muslim extremists who want to blow political figures up… those pricks should do us a favor now and then by taking these parasites out.. should import a few from Denmark I think. :)
Secondly, poor guy, our sympathies go out to him and his family. To the MAFIAA $10k may not be much, but to the average Swedish person thats not pocket change.
http://www.ezee.se/
poor guy… well at least the fine is not that much but the police should be more worried about the criminals on the streets no the file sharers… and sometimes p2p helps the artists thats what they dont see the world is getting smaller with p2p.. sorry about the bad english guys
Im sure these are criminals who should be behind bars in Sweden … try doing that first.
9000 dollar ?
Oh, thats about about 50 Euro these days.
It’s not that much money, he probably won’t go bankrupt.
anyone know how to donate. the link doesnt make much sence. its a log of donations, but nothing that says how
This is terrible news :(
23rd!
I was excited to read this until I realized that “escaped prison” didn’t mean “dug out of a high-security prison with a spoon and a nail file.”
He was given 40 day fines, amounting to some 10000 kronor ($1650) and must also pay the court costs of 44670 kronor ($7360).
http://friendcredit.com/
This individual has been unfairly treated and the court is out of it’s mind to let such a fine go out into the occupants hands, i hope the RIAA and the MIAA get bombed or something bad happens to them, and if they asked the individual to pay there court fees, i would be so angry i would have to murder them myself, one day they will sue some1 who has a screw lose in there head and will do someitnhg drastic like i sed above, just wait for, after that P2P networking will be totally non-surveilanced,
and what hackers and p2p engineerers should do is actually snoop out the RIAA and SUE THEM, such as there file manipulation on varios P2p Networks, didn’t they have to aquire there music first, or UPLOAD it to begin with, this alone should be able to put them in there place, and i shall see to it that this post gets read thourouly,
Yours sincerly, an angry p2p Client and Bt user
fucking bullshit. http://perfspo.com
Sounds like somebody didn’t do enough to cover his annonimity.
I can’t help but feel partially responisble though - Whatever bullshit he was charged with I’m prpbably guilty of too. It would be nice to see the community get together and show the guy some support, if there was any way that we could help him pay his fine, we should.
using my trusty currency converter that’s around 9,000 here and those of you who say that’s not much go donate if you think like that for an average person that requires several weeks even months of noodles and cold showers my sympathy is with you but next time cover your ass better
[quote comment="374444"]they give it away free on the radio[/quote]
Just a small but important point. Radio broadcast has never been free. You “pay” for the privilege of listening to the music by being a captive audience for the advertising. The music Itself was considered an advertisement for the purchasable media. And since it was at a poor quality, often spoken over and could only be recorded in a time consuming process, it was considered an acceptable loss if people taped it.
Due to the new dynamic created by file sharing, and interesting projects like pandora and last.FM I think there will soon be little need for broadcast radio. I see commercial radio having even less diversity in the future… It will be one long musical ad that you will only listen to if you are really bored or stupid.
Expect any remaining specialty and niche broadcast to be gone very soon unless it is publicly supported, like a college station or an eclectic weekend show on public radio.
So I doubt you will even find most of the music you would be interested in downloading playing on your local stations anyway. I know this is already true where I live and has been for many years, I would say 90% of my music collection has never been played on commercial radio in this market. So to say “they give it away free on the radio” is just not true, and never has been.
Just somthing to think about, thanks for humoring me.
And yes it sucks that this poor guy got sued. I hate to see it happen. Clearly, it is not the answer.
The sad thing is, that if the guy had kept his big mouth shut during the police investigation, there might not even have been a case for the prosecutor. Major part of the “evidence” was the guy’s own, initial admissions.
Let this be a lesson to all of you, in the unlikely event that the same should happen to you: save the talk to your day in court, and answer any, but the most harmless questions, from the police investigators with “That’s for me to know and for you to find out”.
Most countries have laws similar to the US 5th Amendment — use that option to it’s extreme and you’ll most probably walk free!
damn u #29
DO NOT click on that link or you’ll get ricko’d and it sucks!!
[quote comment="374444"]Jail and crap sure its illegal but get real they give it away free on the radio but people can’t share it on the internet the mpaa has way too much fucking pull.[/quote]
WHile I have as much love for the music industry as the next man this isn’t really correct.
“They” do not give songs away for “free” on the radio. Radio companies pay the record labels to be able to play the songs.
Migtht as well say that itunes is giving away songs for “free”.
This just sucks. Poor guy indeed. Man, if you are reading this, learn that money is just money and as fast as it goes, it will come back. Just stay focused you can do it. DO IT.
What a plunder… er what a blunder.
The minister of justice doesn’t seem to get the point. If ISPs give out IP numbers and only one fifth (23000./4530.) of the accusation is true, four fifth of the accusation will be libel cases.
People need poltiical pressure put on these assholes. Everyone should be forgetting their petty politics and voting with one specific goal in mind.
This is his blog: http://fildelaren.blogspot.com/
The account number is on the right, if you want to donate anything to him.
@22: Roughly translated:
“Plusgiro” account: 115 99 42-0
All donations will go to paying fines, damages and trial costs. Any eventual remaining funds will be passed on for similar purposes. If there is no conviction there is a possibility to get your donation back.
Only write your name and city if you DON’T want to be anonymous. If you want to be repaid if there is no conviction, please provide your account number
The list below will be updated roughly every three days.”
“Plusgiro” accounts are special Swedish accounts that historically have been handled by the postal service, now by a bank. For international transfers you need a BIC (Bank Identifier Code) and a IBAN (International Bank Account Number). The BIC for the Plusgiro bank, Nordea Bank AB, is NDEASESS. The IBAN I don’t know, but it’s NOT the same as the normal account number on the page - it’s supposed to be a 24 digit code. So for now it looks like you can only donate if you are in Sweden, or otherwise can use Plusgiro accounts. =(
poor guy indeed, to the greatest sense of the word, hes not gonna have much of a wallet left, thanks to these table scrap pilfering beurocrats. makes you really feel insecure even browsing the net, makes you wanna fork out 200 bucks for the latest IP encryption software.
maybe one day the people will cease paying to jail non violent file sharers and marijuana smokers/growers and focus on paying to house violent criminals in jail..
maybe one day..
when the people are too poor to afford luxury goods and have nothing better to do than sit and THINK about the mess they now live in…
Just say no to throwing non violent file sharers in jail to have their anuses pounded by gangland’s disease ridden horse sized cocks to inject semen into the quivering geek hineys.
need a way to not need isp’s
they will all play governments game
the solution would be that every one uploads just afew fils ( 2 movies and a few songs,, 1 software etc. ) then nobody will be prosecuted. The problem is that only a very few of us (know how to) upload the stuff and honestly I tried it without success. I wondered how did axxo and the other heroes escape from being attacked yet by these monsters, touch wood. What about the discos ? they make money with from the music, why don’t they get fined ? what about all those thousends of hotels which again make money with the movie channels ? I was very surprised to hear about this case happening in Sweden, I thopught Swedish are more sorber and tolerant. God bless the sharers especialy the uploaders.
how will this case being that it was in sweden, effect the pirate bays case?
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