Posted on 06/02/2006 2:47:16 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
The American film and music industry rejoiced over the raid by the Swedish police on The Pirate Bay. But reports that the US government was behind the action against the Sweden-based file sharing site have now resulted in the Swedish government being reported to the country's Constitutional Committee.
The widescale raid carried out at hosting companies in Stockholm, Västmanland and Västra Götaland targeted one of the world's largest sites for sharing music, games and computer programmes.
Related Articles Police site crashes after attack 2nd June 2006 Prison's mobile phone blocker does not work 2nd June 2006 Pirate Bay raid hits other sites 1st June 2006
According to Swedish Television's news programme, Rapport, the action was the result of contact between the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the White House.
The US State Department then turned to Stockholm, with a demand for Sweden to do something about The Pirate Bay.
In April a Swedish delegation consisting of representatives of the National Police Department, the Police Board and the Ministry of Justice travelled to Washington to discuss The Pirate Bay.
Swedish police and prosecutors were then given the go-ahead to act. According to one prosecutor the legal situation was still unclear, but the state secretary Dan Eliasson gave the order for the operation to begin, according to Rapport.
"I can guarantee that nobody from the Ministry of Justice gets involved in operational work in individual cases. Neither politicians nor civil servants," Eliasson told TT.
He said that the Swedish delegation and the US authorities simply discussed copyright issues and how to deal with file sharing in general terms, and did not focus on The Pirate Bay specifically.
"We have not had any demands [about The Pirate Bay] from the American authorities at a government level. On the other hand, there are often discussions at a civil servant level about the problem of file sharing and copyright breaches," said Eliasson.
"This happened here too, and of course the big file sharing sites were mentioned."
Eliasson also confirmed that the MPAA has lobbied the Swedish government many times.
"But that's not an American authority, it's an interest group. I have met representatives from the MPAA and they were concerned about the file sharing being run from Sweden. I can't remember whether or not The Pirate Bay was mentioned," he said.
The Centre Party's justice spokesman, Johan Linander, has now asked the parliamentary Constitutional Committee to investigate justice minister Thomas Bodström and others in office.
Linander says that American pressure led Swedish politicians to get involved in the police's operations.
On Thursday Bodström said that he found it hard to believe that anyone would try to direct the Swedish police or prosecutors to make arrests.
"But we have discussed how we should continue the work around the copyright issue," he said, referring to a letter urging the police to increase efforts against illegal file sharing.
Bodström was on a flight on Thursday night and was not contactable.
On Wednesday police arrested three men in their 20s following a report from the film and music organisation Antipiratbyrån. They are suspected of breaking copyright laws.
The movie industry keeps suppressing the study they did that revealed that Mexico was number 3 in piracy, behind the US and China. Of course, that is the most rapidly growing demographic....so in essence, they are screwed, and go after the Swedish Grandmothers.
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2004 18:21:43 -0100 (GMT) From: anakata To: KMWLAW@flash.net Subject: Re: Unauthorized Use of DreamWorks SKG Properties On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 KMWLAW@flash.net wrote: > Dennis L. Wilson, Esq. > KEATS McFARLAND & WILSON, LLP > 9720 Wilshire Blvd., Penthouse Suite > Beverly Hills, CA 90212 > Tel: (310) 248-3830 > Fax: (310) 860-0363 > > > August 23, 2004 > > > VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL > AND U.S. MAIL > > ThePirateBay.org > Box 1206 > Stockholm 11479 > SWEDEN > > tracker-40-aa-5f-03-412675c8@prq.to > > Re: Unauthorized Use of DreamWorks SKG Properties > http://www.thepiratebay.org > > To Whom It May Concern: > > This letter is being written to you on behalf of our > client, DreamWorks SKG (hereinafter ^ÓDreamWorks^Ô). > DreamWorks is the exclusive owner of all copyright, > trademark and other intellectual property rights in > and to the ^ÓShrek 2^Ô motion picture. No one is > authorized to copy, reproduce, distribute, or > otherwise use the ^ÓShrek 2^Ô motion picture without > the express written permission of DreamWorks. [...] > As you may be aware, Internet Service Providers can > be held liable if they do not respond to claims of > infringement pursuant to the requirements of the > Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In > accordance with the DMCA, we request your assistance > in the removal of infringements of the ^ÓShrek 2^Ô > motion picture from this web site and any other sites > for which you act as an Internet Service Provider. > We further declare under penalty of perjury that we > are authorized to act on behalf of DreamWorks and > that the information in this letter is accurate. > Please contact me immediately to discuss this matter > further. As you may or may not be aware, Sweden is not a state in the United States of America. Sweden is a country in northern Europe. Unless you figured it out by now, US law does not apply here. For your information, no Swedish law is being violated. Please be assured that any further contact with us, regardless of medium, will result in a) a suit being filed for harassment b) a formal complaint lodged with the bar of your legal counsel, for sending frivolous legal threats. It is the opinion of us and our lawyers that you are fucking morons, and that you should please go sodomize yourself with retractable batons. Please also note that your e-mail and letter will be published in full on http://www.thepiratebay.org. Go fuck yourself. Polite as usual, anakata
Sorry for lack of paragraphs http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:W2wTIvv9abAJ:thepiratebay.org/legal.php+&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a
The above post was quoted verbatim for newsworthiness.
Viewer Discretion advised.
Whoops.
Thread hijack in progress. Please remain seated.
The Pirate Bay is the world's largest torrent tracker, and you're saying they're not experts? Incidentally, it's been up and running at 100% for a day now, in spite of the raid. Take that, MPAA.
hey listen im not sure how correct this is, as its just speculation, but i believe because the mpaa or whoever now have control of tpb they are now running it to crack down on piraters,,,, why do i think this? because i went on earlier and noticed it up and running again, but if you have firefox and you make it a tab, the name of the tab is "the police bay"
that has got me a bit leary, so im staying away from it until further information....
but this is only my speculation, i dont know if it is fact
Not only is The Pirate Bay back, they had a large protest in the streets of Stockholm today. Jolly Roger flags and all.
If that was meant to be sarcastic, it was a bit too subtle for me to understand. If not, please...
HOAX
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/6485.cfm
http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=811
http://www.dvd-recordable.org/Articl...reshold0.phtml
Very good publicity stunt ...
it's back and very Googlish
arent those articles dated 2005?
oops....
my bad ... need to better vet my sources
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