Swedish Politicians Strike Blows at Copyright Lobby
Written by Ben Jones on January 10, 2008Last week, seven Swedish MPs wrote to a prominent Swedish tabloid newspaper ‘Expressen’ to express their dissatisfaction with proposals for dealing with copyright infringers. Now, that number has increased to 13, and the issue seems to keep growing.
Initially, Karl Sigfrid, and 6 other MPs [Members of Parliament] wrote to Expressen (Swedish, English) to express their opposition to a plan proposed by Cecilia Renfors, a copyright analyst appointed by the Swedish government, in what Expressen called “Seven MPs defy the party line: Legalizing file sharing is not just the best solution, but the only solution”. Her plan was that ISPs would close down the connections of filesharers, preventing them from participating in any further copyright infringement. The condemnation for this was broad-based, from the Data inspection Board, the Competition Authority, all the way to the Swedish court of Appeal.
The message from the Moderate Party MPs to their Antipiratbyrån supporting colleagues was “be careful, they will never be satisfied”, drawing parallels to the earlier attempts to ban MP3 players, and VCRs, both areas in which, having failed to ban, industry groups are now making a profit from selling content.
Karl Sigfrid told TorrentFreak that the APB proposals make no practical sense. “I think it could be solved in theory. However, in reality, you would need such a surveillance system to achieve this that it would be all out of proportion. So I don’t think there’s a feasilbe way of stopping individuals copying. The cause for file sharing is basically that it’s possible. People have always done it to the extent that they’ve been able to. With cassette tapes 20 years ago and electronically today. Copyright laws preventing individuals from sharing information have never been legitimate in the eyes of most people.”
When asked about if it was down to content industries being slow to change their business practices, he replied: “It’s hard to say what would have happened if the content industries had been quicker releasing their material online, before the P2P networks grew mainstream. Probably the illegal filesharing would be less extensive, but it’s possible that it would still have been increasingly difficult for iTunes and such services to compete with free downloading. The change needed might be so radical that it’s no longer about selling copies of immaterial products at all.”
Rickard Falkvinge, of the Swedish Pirate Party was understandably upbeat about it. “Karl Sigfrid’s taking a stand marks a major turning point. For the first time, an established politician shows deep-down understanding of the real conflict, instead of cluelessly humming along with a technophobical luddite industry. Some other Swedish mainstream politicians have previously talked in terms of how it’s unreasonable to declare war on an entire generation. Sigfrid is the first to understand why.” His enthusiasm is understandable as, one Swedish torrent user put it “a bunch of members of The Conservative Party have started listening to the policies of The Pirate Party, and they want to jump on their bandwagon, as it’s gaining popularity”.
Gaining popularity it is, as yesterday, thirteen members of Parliament joined in another attack (Swedish only, no English translation at present) on the likes of the APB, and recording industries, saying “The record labels are obviously opposed to a development that makes them obsolete.” However, not everyone has been celebrating. Pirate Bay administrator Brokep was skeptical, saying “I’m intrigued that the debate is sparking up again. There’s been a lot of lies from the politicians. Promises and nothing has happened, so at least this will put the debate back on the map.”
The initial seven MPs were Karl Sigfrid. Margareta Cederfelt. Ulf Berg. Lena Asplund. Staffan Appelros. Lisbeth Grönfeldt Bergman and Göran Montan. Tuesdays additions were Marie Weibull Kornias,Finn Bengtsson, Ann-Charlotte Hammar Johnsson, Sven Yngve Persson, and Anders Hansson.
**UPDATE** Sorry, forgot to add this translation of the second piece, available here
Previously: Download from BitTorrent and Usenet with Your Web Server
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128 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
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remove copyright laws for digital content and people cant “steal” not be pirates.
problem solved, industry adapts everyones happy except the parasites.
1) I personally don’t see an ISP fee working out, especially due to the point brought up earlier- if an ISP can do that, would they not get sued by music corporations until they get some portion of the money?
think of it this way: some mass-producing music pirates work in the same way. by making the buyer pay only a fraction of the regular cost of the original album, he earns money off someone else’s work. Would not the ISP’s be technically doing the same thing by charging people even a low rate for something they don’t have permission to sell? Unless the ISP’s suddenly sign deals with record companies for their portion of the return, I don’t see it as feasible.
2) @24, Maybe you should get yourself checked out before saying everyone else around you has some sort of mental disorder (such as NPD). It makes you sound schizophrenic. It depends on much more than that- In order for the bands to make the money they deserve, we need to help them eliminate the middleman (the RIAA, etc). They make their money touring and from dedicated fans buying their merch, and make very little from the CDs of their music that are constantly being produced. Why dont the bands make the money they deserve? because record companies have become the best way to get noticed quickly- until The Internet.
[quote comment="260205"]the next president of US would be black, after that it would be pirate[/quote]
LOL
awesome.
You guys are too funny, especially these last comments about the eventual music ISP fee.
Go get get ‘em boys! I’m sure the world is listening to you and really values your opinions! lol
ron paul
@54: Actually, yes, the world IS listening very intensely, but they don’t value our intentions so much as fear them.
Some politicians have started waking up to the issue as well.
You see, there is one thing that beats every wheelbarrow of lobbyists’ cash. Just one. And that’s votes in a democratic election.
When you have between 80% and 95% of the population wanting to legalize file sharing, as is the case in Sweden, that starts to matter a lot.
NPD, everywhere. So funny.
I bet you think you’re going to take over the world, don’t you? C’mon, admit it, you do.
we our taking over the world- you just can’t deal with realty. you’re big corperations can’t tell us what to do. I’ll take whatever I want, the internet is free to the world.
@56: Oh, I’ve gone on record saying that. Not me taking over, though, but the ideas and ideals of free file sharing. I said that in an interview to CNet this summer: “Sweden, Europe, and the world - in that order”.
Just today I got a request for an interview where one of the questions started “So far, your plan appears to be executing on track. What do you see…”
So while you laugh at it, I’ve spent the past two years of my life actively trying to push pieces and arrows into position.
[quote comment="260402"]@56: Oh, I’ve gone on record saying that. Not me taking over, though, but the ideas and ideals of free file sharing. I said that in an interview to CNet this summer: “Sweden, Europe, and the world - in that order”.
Just today I got a request for an interview where one of the questions started “So far, your plan appears to be executing on track. What do you see…”
So while you laugh at it, I’ve spent the past two years of my life actively trying to push pieces and arrows into position.[/quote]
Keep on pushing .. We’re all behind you.
The power is in the people, we all need our voices heard. It’s going to be a rough ride ahead but we all will win in the end.
We have something so unique here, the internet is something we all should fight for, and fight hard.
Net neutrality, freedom to speak, freedom to share and voice opinions. It’s all worth fighting for.
eh…as long as Bush is till around, I will keep blaming US of A.
Trust me artists earn a LOT from live performances..
[quote comment="260419"]Trust me artists earn a LOT from live performances..[/quote]
I would believe that. Let’s think of one example.
Here, it’s about $80 for a ticket. Thinking average price. Now, 40,000 people, also conservative. That makes $320,000 dollars.
This is conservative. So, take out all the costs, you’d still be left with a great deal of cash.
Not bad for one nights work.
File sharing is legal, why would there be a need to legalise it? If I send an email to someone I have by definition shared a file since a copy of the email ends up in my “Sent Mail”-folder. Where is the illegality in that?
/Mike
[quote comment="260426"]File sharing is legal, why would there be a need to legalise it? If I send an email to someone I have by definition shared a file since a copy of the email ends up in my “Sent Mail”-folder. Where is the illegality in that?
/Mike[/quote]
Unless you happen to send a copyrighted image in that email and you didn’t know. Then you break the law and deserve hefty fines.
What are you guys going to do when the ISP music fee takes effect and everyone is able to legally download for free?
Go back to shoplifting? LOL.
ISP music fee? WTF are you on, that’ll never happen.
If it does i might go back to breaking into houses, starting with YOURS!
Is there any way to contact the MPs and give them our support for the cause?
[quote comment="260256"]Hey.. did the RIAA ever find the music that was stolen?[/quote]
Yeah, it’s on your hard drive.
If I build a guitar in my basement, I created it. If you take it without me saying you can, you obviously have stolen it.
If I write a song in my basement, I created it. If you take it without me saying you can, you obviously have stolen it.
Who the fuck cares what Sweden thinks?
They don’t give a shit about this because Swedish stuff isn’t being stolen.
And like their opinion is going to actually ever matter anyway. haha.
[quote comment="260453"][quote comment="260256"]Hey.. did the RIAA ever find the music that was stolen?[/quote]
Yeah, it’s on your hard drive.
If I build a guitar in my basement, I created it. If you take it without me saying you can, you obviously have stolen it.
If I write a song in my basement, I created it. If you take it without me saying you can, you obviously have stolen it.[/quote]
If I copy the song, you still have it, so it’s not stolen.
End of story, not stop the stealing bullshit, people don’t buy it anymore.
[quote comment="260456"]Who the fuck cares what Sweden thinks?
They don’t give a shit about this because Swedish stuff isn’t being stolen.
And like their opinion is going to actually ever matter anyway. haha.[/quote]
You bored at work or something?
[quote comment="260457"]If I copy the song, you still have it, so it’s not stolen.[/quote]
Nice punt.
I created it. I get to decide where goes, not you.
The latest list of Swedish things worth stealing:
.
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