USA forced Sweden's hand on piracy and Pirate Bay crackdown
The US has clicked its all powerful fingers at Sweden, having demanded that it close down the Pirate Bay and other similar sites in Wikileak diplomatic cables, or suffer the consequences.
The States has been exerting its power and making demands within the IPRED legislation.
The US was allegedly the driving force behind threats to Swedish ISPs in 2008, and it is currently the driving force behind the so-called “step two of the data retention”, presented by the Justice Minister last week.
The States has been exerting its power and making demands within the IPRED legislation.
The US was allegedly the driving force behind threats to Swedish ISPs in 2008, and it is currently the driving force behind the so-called “step two of the data retention”, presented by the Justice Minister last week.
This legislation will give police access to all and any collected records under Data Retention in the proposed Police Methods Report. Ordinarily, prison sentences of more than two years would have been required to collect IP addresses, but the PMU changes this before the Data Retention is even in place. The aim is to get enough evidence from ISPs to highlight illegal file sharing sites and then close them down.
And if Sweden doesn't comply it suffers.
And if Sweden doesn't comply it suffers.
"Disobeying these points would mean Sweden would be added to the Special 301 list of countries not sufficiently compliant with US trade demands, meaning trade sanctions would be enforced against Sweden," forums user Bisse suggests.
Sweden had a relaxed attitude to file sharing up until 2004 when the US and its various organizations decided to intervene. They've been going after the Pirate Bay and others ever since.
The US wanted to tell Sweden what to do with the Pirate Bay. Back in 2006 John Malcolm of the MPAA sent a letter to the Swedish Government reminding it of plans that had been set out.
Because the MPAA couldn't get authority on its own it encouraged the US Embassy to intervene.
At the time Mr Malcolm wrote: "Clearly the complaints that we filed on behalf of our members in 2004 and 2005 with the police in Stockholm and Gothenburg against the operators of The Pirate Bay have resulted in no action.
"As I am sure you are aware, the American Embassy has sent entreaties to the Swedish government urging it to take action against The Pirate Bay and other organizations oyeratin,a with Sweden that facilitate copyright theft. As we discussed during our meeting, it is certainly not in Sweden's best interests to earn a reputation among other nations and trading partners as a place where utter lawlessness with respect to intellectual property rights is tolerated.
"I would urge you once again to exercise your influence to urge law enforcement authorities in Sweden to take much-needed action against The Pirate Bay."
Although the Government did manage to close the site, it popped up just days later.
But in 2009 the US got its way - when four co-founders of website were found guilty of assisting the distribution of illegal content online by a Swedish court were sentenced to a year in jail and a £2.4m fine.
Charges were brought by a consortium of media, film and music companies led by the International Federation of the Pornographic, sorry Phonographic Industry.
A Stockholm court found the four defendants guilty of making 33 specific files accessible for illegal sharing through The Pirate Bay, which meant they had to pay compensation to 17 different music and media companies including Sony BMG, Universal, EMI, Warner, MGM and 20th Century Fox.
The four then appealed in November this year and as a result three of the defendants had their sentences reduced, but their total fines increased to $6.5 million.
At the time Mr Malcolm wrote: "Clearly the complaints that we filed on behalf of our members in 2004 and 2005 with the police in Stockholm and Gothenburg against the operators of The Pirate Bay have resulted in no action.
"As I am sure you are aware, the American Embassy has sent entreaties to the Swedish government urging it to take action against The Pirate Bay and other organizations oyeratin,a with Sweden that facilitate copyright theft. As we discussed during our meeting, it is certainly not in Sweden's best interests to earn a reputation among other nations and trading partners as a place where utter lawlessness with respect to intellectual property rights is tolerated.
"I would urge you once again to exercise your influence to urge law enforcement authorities in Sweden to take much-needed action against The Pirate Bay."
Although the Government did manage to close the site, it popped up just days later.
But in 2009 the US got its way - when four co-founders of website were found guilty of assisting the distribution of illegal content online by a Swedish court were sentenced to a year in jail and a £2.4m fine.
Charges were brought by a consortium of media, film and music companies led by the International Federation of the Pornographic, sorry Phonographic Industry.
A Stockholm court found the four defendants guilty of making 33 specific files accessible for illegal sharing through The Pirate Bay, which meant they had to pay compensation to 17 different music and media companies including Sony BMG, Universal, EMI, Warner, MGM and 20th Century Fox.
The four then appealed in November this year and as a result three of the defendants had their sentences reduced, but their total fines increased to $6.5 million.
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