At noon today Swedish police raided the server park of well known Bit Torrent tracker The Pirate Bay. The Pirate Bay was the worlds largest Bit Torrent tracker with over 4 million members. The argument behind their service, as has been ruled on the Swedish courts earlier, is that its not illegal to link to illegal content, and that is just what a torrent file is, a link. The raid indicates that the Swedish police, or rather the Swedish minister of justice Thomas Bodström, has change their stand on this point. If this is due to pressure from Hollywood and the MPAA and if this will hold up in court is something that the future will have to tell.

All of this is obviously something that was bound to happen, especially since TPB have openly ridiculed anybody who has objected to their intellectual property being available for public consumption via their site. What also happened, and the thing that got me pissed of, is the fact that not only TPBs servers were seized in the raid, but every server hosted by PRQ. This is, understandably, a disaster not only for the companies affected, but for Sweden as a just and lawful state. In comparison think how you would react if your bank account was seized due to criminals using the same bank as you, or if the police would raid your home since you lived next doors to a criminal. Its a sad day for Sweden, and i hope that the people responsible for this injustice have to answer for their actions.

It should be stated that i am in no way supportive of the type of activities that TPB enables. It sickens me, if to a lesser extent, to have to listen to the fan boys who feel that their actions are justified, is it so hard to understand that even digital media belongs to somebody? Theft is theft no matter how it is conducted. I am these days a proud owner of all the software i use, i buy all the music i listen to, and if i could access the TV content i wanted, to allow me to view it at my leisure, for a fee i would be happy to do so. Its the ramifications of these actions, and the fact that law and order can be upset at the will of commercial interests that bother me. Since the state is the only instance in our society that has the power and authority to act this way they need to temper their spirits and ensure that their actions are justified, and lawful.

I feel ashamed to live in Sweden today, and i am counting the days until the election this fall, since our current government is not only obsessed with the idea of ruling Sweden, but they are also doing no governing worth the name apart from ensuring that they'll win the next election. Its not like the other parties in Sweden offer much of an alternative, what we really need is a government that realises that they exist due to the people, and not the other way around.

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Carl Cedergren
2006-05-31 08:02

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