Sweden to Introduce Controversial Anti-Piracy Law
Written by Ernesto on October 23, 2008Sweden, home of The Pirate Bay and the most active pro-piracy lobbyists and politicians, is drafting a new law that would make it easier to go after individuals who share copyrighted files on filesharing networks such as BitTorrent. The new law, likely to be opposed by a large number of Swedes, will go into effect April 2009.
The law will make it easier for copyright holders to get a court order in order to force ISPs to release the customer info linked to a suspect IP-address. The Local reports that, although the law is based on a EU directive, the current draft goes further than that.
In order to obtain the personal details, copyright holders will have to prove that there is “probable cause” that a person, or rather an IP-address, has actually shared copyrighted material with others. With the current state of evidence gathering, where mistakes and false accusations are fairly common, this may not be that easy to achieve.
The many unsecured Wireless routers complicate the evidence gathering even further, and BitTorrent trackers have also implemented countermeasures of their own. Earlier this week we reported that the Pirate Bay tracker software automatically inserts several “random IP addresses” that are not actually downloading data. This is done on purpose, to pollute the evidence gathering of anti-piracy outfits.
The new law is also heavily opposed by Swedish Pirate Party Chairman Rick Falkvinge who told TorrentFreak: “These laws are written by digital illiterates who behave like blindfolded, drunken elephants trumpeting about in an egg packaging facility. They have no idea how much damage they’re causing, because they lack today’s literacy: an understanding of how the Internet is reshaping the power structures at their core.”
“We have good hope of putting an end to these ridiculous developments. Either the existing politicians start to understand what they’re actually doing at work all day, or they will escalate the conflict to the point where we’re replacing them in office. Either way, copyright will be scaled back,” Falkvinge added.
It is to be expected that opposition against the new anti-piracy law will be great, similar to the public outrage when Sweden introduced a wiretapping law earlier this year, and after the raid on The Pirate Bay in 2006. It wouldn’t surprise us if The Pirate Bay fights this battle at the front, clashing with local politicians and media once again.
‘Pirates’ demonstrating in Stockholm following the raid on The Pirate Bay raid in 2006

Previously: How to Bring Dead Torrents Back to Life
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50 Responses
Take that you pesky swedes.
I’m guessing it’s 2009 and not 2008?
I hope it does get stopped because these sort of things normally spread like a virus if their effect, regardless of being legally or morally correct -_-
April 2008? Isn’t that already past? At least the Swedes are somewhat mobilized with The Pirate Bay guiding and all. I see not a similar big thing in the United States.
Roze
http://www.28chan.org/fs/
2008 changed to 2009, thanks ;)
I love that example of the drunken elephant.
What needs to happen is someone needs to find ‘probable cause’ on them, f*ck there life all up, and then withdraw all charges and leave there life in a mess. Its easy to make up laws when your not on the receiving end.
If only I lived in sweden, I would be at those protests. That country is still about what the PEOPLE want, not some peice of shit faggot politician wants.
The government is supposed to SERVE the people, not terrorize and enslave them.. like the USA.
“Any people anywhere being inclined and having the power have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and force a new one that suits them better.” a wise man once said…
“That country is still about what the PEOPLE want, not some peice of shit faggot politician wants.”
I really wish that was true, but trust me its not (I live in Stockholm, Sweden).
Media money is very powerful and unfortunatly has corrupted a lot of our politicians,while others are just plain old stupid.
Case and point: Beatrice Ask – Justice minister and overall dumb corrupted bitch.
http://www.eZee.se
In April 2009 Sweden will have over 5 million criminals. They can’t catch us all.
Jesus Fucking Christ Larry…
Well ezee.. that saddens me a bit..
I kinda was under the impression Sweden was very PEOPLE orientated.. and that the government didnt get to do whatever the hell it felt like without having to please the people..
We are all cattle, herded around by our governments.. we are told what to do every step of the way.. because apparently we are all too stupid to think for ourselves.
Freedom is a burden, something you have to defend. People want to live life without any thing that makes them ‘feel bad’.
People need to accept the cold truth that nothing will really be accomplished without things that dont ‘feel good’.. when a rapist is attacking you.. are you going to discuss it with him.. or are you going to send a 357 round into face.. oh wait you voted for gun control you cant..
You die, the end.
when even most young cops download stuff and have lots of relatives downloading from ex. piratebay… they will not be able to make shure this law is upheld..
when even people in the goverment download stuff on there work computers…
if they would arest everyone thad download sweden would be a emty country…
All the more reason to support your local Pirate Party!
They’ll make a movie about the Sweede Politicians soon.
” The Corruptibles! “
go on pirate party! you can do it.
we need to show these outdated laws and politicians the new generation of people.
Should I laugh or should I cry?
next time, I’m voting pirate.
im telling ya all
get eggs and start pelting there cars and make htem look unpopular
it wont hurt nohting but the paint nor the suits YOU PAY FOR.
and will send them the right message
oh no not the eggorists, call out the army….
I want left wing back in power again..
lobbyism controls sweden now, its all about greed and control something we were lucky to have avoided for so many years..
Mass protests doesnt do mutch, FRA law is still on schedule with minor changes. We have to wait a couple of years until we have a new government before this trend changes, until then it will only get worse.
In the meantime: KEEP SHARING!!
Good Lord, whats with all the latest push for anti-piracy stuff??? Give it a break folks, a little Pircay never hurt nobody now did it?
Jiff
http://www.online-privacy.cz.tc
There could be millions of users of bittorrent. How could they catch every single one of them, prosecute them, and where could they detain them.
@21
In Siberia? Lotsa room there =D I wonder how long governments can last when at least half the population is being paid (in a sense, room and board is free in jail) by the taxation on the rest? Sounds like bad pickin’s…
“The new law is also heavily opposed by Swedish Pirate Party Chairman Rick Falkvinge who told TorrentFreak: ‘These laws are written by digital illiterates who behave like blindfolded, drunken elephants trumpeting about in an egg packaging facility. They have no idea how much damage they’re causing, because they lack today’s literacy: an understanding of how the Internet is reshaping the power structures at their core.’”
Ummmmm okay dude I have no idea what you’re even talking about. So this is the guy that represents us? That sucks.
I wonder who’s behind doing these seemingly ‘little’ things such as closing down freedom of sharing information…the difference between actual theft and online theft is that, with actual theft a physical item is removed. However with online piracy a COPY is made and distributed. The fact is that those who are going to pay for the products (i.e large/ small businesses who will also buy a license) will still pay for the product :) however those who pirate, weren’t going to pay for it anyway…so the media/software companies still don’t lose anything.
Wow. Sweden used to be the place all dreamed of living when it came too p2p and downloading, now between the wiretapping and this its one of the worst places to be.
How quickly things change.
Maybe Swedish people will start using anonymous p2p like Perfect Dark? That would put things back in place, and Sweden has good speeds like Japan…
that’s pretty fucked up that TPB adds “random” ip’s to their tracker. why get innocent people involved?
This just in, effective immediately it will be illegal for individuals directly or indirectly associated with movie production companies, MPAA and so forth to visit any website not owned by such. This will also include not being permitted to visit hotmail.com, google, yahoo, amazon, blockbuster… no employee of such organizations will be permitted to enter any store not directly making money off movies. Family members will be imprisoned for 30 years if an employee if caught writing novel for free or telling bedtime stories to their children without written consent from Dr Suess or Mother Goose. No lullaby can sung or hummed above 2 decibals without proof of payment to the RIAA or MPAA or the like. These laws go into effect now. Those thinking of songs or even mentioning the titles of movies or actors will be prosecuted to the fullest extend of the law.
Always there is a country who is not-anti-piracy :D we will keep downloading copyright material :D thanks to all the artists for the music and movies. And soft too :D
First FRA-law, now this.
Where is Sweden going?
@Miqueltozzz
We´re sitting in the lap of money.
I love my country but I hate the fools that run it.
Grrrr hold me back! Hold me back!
Why do people think they’d have to prosecute us all?
All they have to do is target a couple 100 who’ve shared _few files_ and sue them for 2000-3000$. That’d stop most people from filesharing.
Quasit I hope you meant that as sarcasm :) Have you looked at the volume and amounts paid in the US?
@5 Said: “That country is still about what the PEOPLE want, not some peice of shit faggot politician wants.
The government is supposed to SERVE the people, not terrorize and enslave them.. like the USA.”
You sir are a f*cking moron of the highest order who hasn’t learnt when to shutup because he has no clue what he is talking about.
You firstly make comments about a country that you apparently haven’t ever been to – only to be corrected by someone who lives there.
Then you maintain that the US government “terrorises” and “enlaves” it’s own people – the US is one of the most free countries in the world and those rights are enshrined unlike almost any other in a Bill of Rights.
Please provide examples of how you believe the US government enslaves and terrorises it’s own people.
I’d be willing to bet that you’re one of those young people who have a low sense of self-esteem and makes up for it by deluding themselves that they’re more intelligent than others in order to feel good about themselves.
Because you’ve convinced yourself you’re more intelligent than average you can come up with drivel like this crap above and think you’re right – just because you thought of it because in your small world you can’t be wrong (after all, your more intelligent).
Tard.
No longer proud to be a Swedish citizen :(
Like I said back when the FRA-law was agreed upon by Riksdagen; you Swedes NEED to go and kick out the politicians who are behind this, otherwise they are just going to keep coming up with more stupid laws..
Just thinking, how funny would it be to mix under the seeder ips by the big entertainment companies. the ip ranges /providers should be easy to find.
Just got my TPB shirt in the mail today… gotta fly the flag and support the community in the face of these crappy events.
Pirate 4 life.
“You sir are a f*cking moron of the highest order who hasn’t learnt when to shutup because he has no clue what he is talking about.
You firstly make comments about a country that you apparently haven’t ever been to – only to be corrected by someone who lives there.
Then you maintain that the US government “terrorises” and “enlaves” it’s own people – the US is one of the most free countries in the world and those rights are enshrined unlike almost any other in a Bill of Rights.
Please provide examples of how you believe the US government enslaves and terrorises it’s own people.
I’d be willing to bet that you’re one of those young people who have a low sense of self-esteem and makes up for it by deluding themselves that they’re more intelligent than others in order to feel good about themselves.
Because you’ve convinced yourself you’re more intelligent than average you can come up with drivel like this crap above and think you’re right – just because you thought of it because in your small world you can’t be wrong (after all, your more intelligent).”
Ohhh and YOU know what your talking about.. same can be said about you in the opposite extreme. You sure have me all figured out dont you.. yet you dont realize you are guilty of the same accusation.
Terrorizing.. MEDIA. Hyped up lies used to scare people to act the way they want.
Enslaving.. laws that restrict things that only involve yourself. Very very small example, you get FINED for not wearing a seatbelt. Apparently im too stupid to know if I should wear a seatbelt, and punished if I choose not to.
The argument could be taken on forever. Its people like you that still continue the corruption. That still put trust in dirty politicians. That think this is just a rut that we have to get out of..
USA – Land of the free (If you do what we say)
In no way do I think that I am more intelligent than other people, in fact, most of the time I clearly state that I DO NOT KNOW what I am talking about, but at the same time, that does not make my opinion any less valid then yours, because you do not know what you are talking about, no one does. The truth is hidden from us. We all take shots in the dark and beat our heads against the walls, powerless. (And dont try to say voting changes anything.. ahahah thats the saddest theory ive ever heard in my short life time)
So go salute your flag, support the capitalism you trust in.. you will end up exactly where I do.
The Time has come-”All Pirate Parties of the World UNITE”.This is your Final Wakeup call to save Free World!
most people are bald in sweden and low iq.
The EU has NO power, Fuck the socialist scumbags. Time to RIOT!
“The only way not to get caught is to reject IP laws”.
After that US will become a little more poor :) Let them learn work hard again as 150 years ago. The time to do it came.
What about anonymous download thru VPN? (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/vpn.htm)
There are some providers offering VPN for a small monthly fee – It should work for Bittorrent AND DC++
Maybe Torrentfreak can write something about it? – List some providers etc
Go petter GO!
@28 LOL good one…. I like it. Forgot to mention that the Alphabet will now fall under the new copywrite laws and anyone caught using any part of the alphabet in any combination will be subject to prosecution.
We have to stop this law!
http://www.stoppaipred.nu/
In April 2009 Sweden will have over 5 million criminals. They can’t catch us all.
who do you think you are? do you have any idea what you just said?
the swedes run a site called the piratebay, which is what this is all about
your comment proves how unintelligent, arrogant, and blind you are to what is staring you in the face
this news report ^^^that way is talking about how thepiratebay will most likely be shutdown
i owe 2 full years of my life to thepiratebay if it gets shut down i will have no reason to even own a computer
i don't know if ur the type that pays 100 dollars for something you will only use 1 or 2 x a month but i and 90 % of the world aren't!
leave, it is people like you who have no idea the extent of the damage they are causing
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