Battleangel

The first court ruling against file sharing in Sweden was announced today. As suspected, the “crime” amounted to “only” a fine, though a quite sizable one, considering that the case revolved around a single movie. 16,000.00 SEK (about 2000 USD) to be precise. Ironic bottom line: Don’t download a movie. You’ll be better off, legally speaking, actually stealing it from the store.

The background to the case can be found on Afterdawn and Slyck.

Apart from the above snag, the jurisprudence here must be that the police ought not involve themselves in future cases brought forth by the industry. It also remarkable though how easily the court accepted screen dumps as evidence. Though one should also note that the file sharer in question admitted to the charges at one point and that there was an expert witness from his ISP (Bredbandsbolaget) who linked the defendant’s IP address to the ISP logs. Bottom line: (1) Don’t admit anything. (2) ISP connivance is crucial for the robber barons.

Though, we know for a fact that ISPs have become much less compliant since the case was initiated AND because of the ruling they can now get away with NOT helping the police (or the industry’s special interests), even if the police would overstep their bounds. We’re also waiting to see if the defendant will accept the ruling or make an appeal, at which point a higher court may not be so easily impressed with the prosecutor’s dumps and parlour tricks.
Needless to say, we, the community will come together to pay for his fine, when the legal process is over, as a way to further minimize the individual impact and demoralize the opposition. Saving money from not going along with a failed business model, we can afford it.

Also reporting on this: TheLocal, BusinessWeek