TorrentFreak

When talking about piracy the entertainment industry and politicians often use the term “theft.” This is a huge problem according to the Swedish sociologist of law Stefan Larsson. In his thesis “Metaphors and Norms – Understanding Copyright Law in a Digital Society,” he explains that these metaphors are in part keeping the wide gap between people’s norms and the law intact.

Today, a court in Sweden has heard the case against a woman accused of sharing 45,000 music tracks online. Even in the home of The Pirate Bay the sheer scale is a record-breaker, and the prosecution has already hinted at a jail sentence. The defense, however, will be hoping for a much better outcome. Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge was there to see it all.

A 60-year-old Swedish man who admitted to sharing 2,880 music tracks on Direct Connect has been sentenced after he stood trial last week. The file-sharer received a so called “day fine” which equals 40 days’ worth of his income, and 2-years probation. Although this man probably escapes jail time, others in a similar position may [...]

Piratetorrents.nu, formerly one of Sweden’s largest private BitTorrent communities, has shut down fearing the authorities may come after them. The abrupt decision comes a few weeks after police in Sweden and Germany raided the XNT.nu BitTorrent tracker and arrested two of the alleged operators of the site.

Police in two countries have coordinated to close down a 30,000 torrent private BitTorrent tracker. The operation, which spanned Sweden and Germany, closed down XNT.nu, a site which had risen through the ashes of other sites shut down by authorities in 2009. Police have arrested two suspected administrators and seized the site’s server.

As part of a file-sharing investigation, in 2010 authorities tracked an IP address to a house in Sweden. After a night playing video games a blurry-eyed house sitter answered the early morning call only to be welcomed by the police. They weren’t looking for him, but the owner who was abroad. Sometimes, however, you can be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Swebits, one of Sweden’s largest BitTorrent communities, has ceased its activities with immediate effect. While the site’s founders cite a DDoS attack, hardware problems and a lack of donations as the reason for the closure, the Swedish authorities and local anti-piracy outfit Antipiratbyran link it to the arrest of a prominent uploader a few days ago.