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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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!
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