Re: New Swedish law bans downloading

[FakeSky]

"Another one falls into line: Sweden has just outlawed downloading of copyrighted material for personal use."

I would just like to make some things clear, as the newsitem
leaves out some very important details.

1) Uploading was always illegal, so with p2p so downloading
was in effect always illegal. (certainly bittorrent for example)

2) Downloading software has been illegal for a long time, and no
arrests have been made. (AFAIK)

3) Our "PUL" law prohibits ISPs from giving out details
unless the crime will get someone _more_ two years behind bars;
the new law has a max limit of 2 years.
So no evidence can be gathered.

4) Our "minister of justice" (bad translation perhaps)
has said that this law is not intended to prosecute kids/teens
downloading mp3s.
Our police has said time and time again that they don´t
have the manpower to chase down kids downloading some Britney songs.

The Swedish legal system, in practice, continues to hold the stance
that the only real crime in this domain is the distribution for profit
of other people´s work.

These offenders have been targets for a long time, so this new law dosn´t really change anything.

Sweden still remains a Mecka of piracy, and since this law got through,
I suspect there will be quite a while before any more "restrictive" laws
are passed.

And seeing as how 1 in 9 swedes (or therabout)
download without much concern,
I can hardly see any such law being enforced.

Peace,
/Per

[unskinnyboy]

Link to this news item?

[mpucoder]

http://www.doom9.org/

[unskinnyboy]

Doh! And why would someone post something here which is already on the mainpage?

[Shinigami-Sama]

so we can talk about perhaps?

[rjgn]

Doh! And why would someone post something here which is already on the mainpage?

You did READ the post didn't you?

I would just like to make some things clear, as the newsitem
leaves out some very important details.

Some interesting points there that I was unaware of even after reading the story on numerous news sites. Including the BBC ;)

[unskinnyboy]

You did READ the post didn't you?
Yeah, so? I missed your point, sorry.

[feedback]

Thanks FakeSky for the heads up. I don't visit the Mainpage as often as the forums.

Regards,:)

[M7S]

The Swedish minister of justice once wrote an open letter to a newspaper about suing companies who is using copy protection on their cds since it interferes with fair use. A law about this would perhaps be made at the same time as the this new downloading law.

Has anyone else heard anything about this? Will this happen or was it just a way for the minister to try to prove that he still is one of the good guys?

Regards,
M7S

[masken]

"Another one falls into line: Sweden has just outlawed downloading of copyrighted material for personal use."
2) Downloading software has been illegal for a long time, and no
arrests have been made. (AFAIK)
There have been several arrests made, but aimed at people selling illegal software/"home-made" discs with games and apps.

The dual morality of laws here in .se only gets worse, due to the "pressure" the record industry and private companies playing authoritives (the "Antipiratbyrån" for example) puts on the goverment. The major example of this is that copying for private use now is illegal, but at the same time, a "casette fee" is being introduced on recordable media, based on the storage volume it can hold. The exact fees aren't decided yet, but for DVD-R's it looks like a 70-100% price increase, and for CD-R's, about 30-50%.

This "casette fee" was scheduled for introduction the 1'st of july, but the industry (media manufacturers against the recording industry) hasn't yet reached an agreement. The purpose of the fee is to compensate the recording industry for "lost revenue" due to illegal copying....

[SeeMoreDigital]

The "fair-use" argument - ie: backing-up copyright material you've bought for your own use in your own devices, is one thing.

Distributing copyright material, without the copyright owners consent or agreement, so that other people can have it for free is a whole different matter. And in my opinion, the people and organisations who allow such activities should get punished.

What's more, they are destroying any chance for countries without a "fair-use" policy to obtain one!


Cheers

[FakeSky]

There have been several arrests made, but aimed at people selling illegal software/"home-made" discs with games and apps.
....

As I wrote further down, they seem to only care about those who sell,
(and sell a lot!) and those have been targeted and arrested.

I do not believe anyone has been arrested for this suposed "crime"
of downloading nor uploading.. This has both practically been illegal
even since people used real p2p(ie upload/download to download)
and strictly illegal in all cases involving computer software.

There have been several arrests made, but aimed at people selling illegal software/"home-made" discs with games and apps.
....
The dual morality of laws here in .se only gets worse, due to the "pressure" the record industry and private companies playing authoritives (the "Antipiratbyrån" for example) puts on the goverment. The major example of this is that copying for private use now is illegal, but at the same time, a "casette fee" is being introduced on recordable media, based on the storage volume it can hold. The exact fees aren't decided yet, but for DVD-R's it looks like a 70-100% price increase, and for CD-R's, about 30-50%.

This "casette fee" was scheduled for introduction the 1'st of july, but the industry (media manufacturers against the recording industry) hasn't yet reached an agreement. The purpose of the fee is to compensate the recording industry for "lost revenue" due to illegal copying....[/QUOTE]

This "tax", which is a fee payed to a private institution,
(http://www.copyswede.se/)
has been with us since 1999.
They were as you said suposed to raise it, but have yet to decide how much.

The double standard isn´t so much that they put a tax on an illegal practice;
which in itself is illegal.
No, their exuse is that you pay this fee to the industri for all the times you
copy your own, bought cd. This practice has never been illegal, and never will be.. Neither would it make sense that you should have to pay to make an extra copy of what you already payed for.

So this is just another "wink wink, nudge nudge" rutine,
where they claim it´s "for the legal copying", knowing full well
that for all practical purposes it applies foremost to the illegal copying.

The same rutine makes it perfectly fine for us to download what we want,
as long as we do not sell it.. at the very least we are so unlikely to be charged or fined that it would be ridiculous to fear it.

This is just another symbolic set of laws, like how it´s illegal for us to write or otherwise obscure the Swedish flag.. yet, (again AFAIK)
there is no punishment for this so evil crime.

And since it´s both cheaper and without this tax,
any senseable person can order some discs from other European coutries.


Also, talking about "Antipiratbyrån"; they have lost pretty much all of that miniscule respect they once had, since they planted evidence on a big ISP,
tried to frame them, and got nailed quite firmly.

I dont know how it turned out(prob. ongoing), but the credibility went to the toilet straight away.

Peace,
/Per

[feedback]

This "casette fee" was scheduled for introduction the 1'st of july
Cassette fee you've got to be kidding. :confused: :eek:

[FakeSky]

Don´t they have it in Canada too?

With the argument that most people use the discs for piracy,
and that piracy is the foremost reason the industry wants a fee,
one can conclude two disturbing things:

1) Tax on an illegal practice. (They don´t tax drug traffic, do they?)
2) Collective punishment. (Truly innocent people who backup still pay the fee.)

But as I said, as the ridiculous things about the law is seemingly balanced out
by the lax enforcement of it, no one will care, and everyone will be pretty much
happy..
Oh, and Göran and the other EU-politicians will be able to claim progress on the
"piracy issue".

Anyhow.. this subject can be discussed ad naseum..
And most arguments for(?)/against the casette fee was probably
voiced quite a few years ago anyhow..

Peace,
/Per