On April 1st 2009, Sweden implemented its controversial IPRED law which promised to make it easier to track down those sharing illicit media via the Internet. Now, exactly 6 months on, what has been achieved with this legislation and what effect has it had on the country’s file-sharers?
Today the Swedish Appeal Court decided that the judge who handled the Pirate Bay trial was not biased, despite his membership of several pro-copyright organizations. In true Pirate Bay style spokesman Peter Sunde responded full force, and says they are ready to sue Sweden for human rights violations.
The Pirate Party has won a huge victory in the Swedish elections and is marching on to Brussels. After months of campaigning against well established parties, the Pirate Party has gathered enough votes to be guaranteed a seat in the European Parliament.
Just two days after Sweden’s new anti-piracy law came into force, two men have been arrested for sharing copyrighted files and administering a rip-box. The arrests were part of an international operation headed by Europol, and the suspects are alleged to be part of an international network.
A new law designed to make it easier for copyright holders to go after illicit file-sharers will come into force April 1st in Sweden. The IPRED legislation will also increase penalties and ultimately criminalize large scale infringement but according to a new poll, the majority of Swedes are against it.
Swedish file-sharers have previously been protected from police action, since any offenses they commit do not generally carry a prison sentence. Now, the government is considering new legislation which will give the police powers to go after regular file-sharers, even if their actions were previously only punishable by a fine.
Ung Pirat, the youth organization of the Swedish Pirate Party received over 1.3 million Krona from the Swedish government yesterday. The money – government funding to political youth organizations – was heavily criticized by anti-piracy lobbyists.
Things are looking really good for the Swedish Pirate Party. Running up to the 2009 European Parliament elections more than half of all Swedish men under 30 are considering voting for them. Thanks to the Internet, its membership has grown 50% during the last quarter, surpassing that of the well established Green Party.
PiratPartiet, the Swedish Pirate Party, has started its march on Brussels with a bang. The party hopes to make a strong showing in June at the European Parliament elections, and has been bolstered in its aims by comments in major Swedish newspapers, which have termed the party “a classic civil rights movement.”
In the fall of 2003, a group of friends from Sweden decided to launch a BitTorrent tracker named ‘The Pirate Bay’. Today, roughly 5 years after this historic day, the founders of the site are celebrities in Sweden, and rockstars on the Internet.
Sweden, 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.
