Swedish Progression

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/04/business/pirate.php?page=1

This article outlines an event that I am sure most of the internet users around the world remember. On May 31, 2006, Swedish police took the founding members of ThePirateBay.org (TPB) along with the server farm responsible for the site into custody. The raid brought on its heels a massive backlash from the Swedish and worldwide community. There are many objections to the invasive action taken by the Swedish government. The first being that the .torrent storing website was not in violation of current Swedish law pertaining to file-sharing, second: the confiscation of unrelated servers (found in the same room) that had no connection with TPB’s business, and last but not least, the allegation that Swedish intervention came at the behest of the American entertainment industry. Although the Swedish government denies any involvement by the American government, the rumor took a strong hold among the populous. Robert Brannstrom, editor of idg,se sees the raid as a futile attempt on the part of the Entertainment business, stating that “…the battle against piracy was already lost.” This article seems to support Brannstrom’s statement. The Swedish are seen (and self-identified) as “sharers” and have some of the most lax file-sharing laws in the world. The phenomenon has taken hold, and it is clear that the Swedes are not prepared to be thrust back into the dark ages of litigation and copy write laws. Within a few days of the raid, TPB was back up and running on servers supposedly located in the Netherlands. Official sites for the Swedish police as well as the Swedish government were hacked and crashed in a retaliatory gesture on the part of unknown, disgruntled internet users. The two founders of The Pirate Bay, Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm were released from custody and not only set up their website once again, but were delighted with the “free” press surrounding their enterprise, “Today, millions of additional people have heard about The Pirate Bay,” Neij said during an interview. "We will have huge numbers of new users.”

I chose this article to illustrate how file sharing is dealt with outside of the United States. Although I was not a .torrent user at the time of the Pirate Bay raid, I was aware of the situation and it’s immediate retaliation against official government websites. The fact is, Swedish officials had neither a legitimate reason for the raid, nor the means to charge Neij and Svartholm and shut down the site. With the general attempt around the world to shut down any file sharing, Sweden had become a comparative safe-haven and a model of a population taking a collective stance for the evolution of internet capabilities as well as legislation dealing with the protection of property.