Swedish Man Convicted of Online Piracy
An AP newswire article by Mattias Karen, via Yahoo! News, reports that:
A Swedish court on Tuesday handed down the country's first Internet piracy conviction, fining a man 16,000 kronor ($2,000) for using a file-sharing network to distribute a movie online.
The Vastmanland district court ruled that Andreas Bawer, 28, violated Swedish copyright laws by making a Swedish movie available for others to download.
The verdict was hailed by the entertainment industry as a first step toward stricter enforcement of copyright laws in Sweden, which has been criticized as a safe haven for online piracy. Up to 10 percent of all Swedes are estimated to freely swap music, movies and games on their computers.
But by saying the crime does not warrant a prison sentence, the court's precedent may have encouraged other file sharers to continue the swapping, as Swedish police can only devote limited resources to offenses that merely result in fines.
posted by Fergie @ 10/25/2005 06:53:00 AM
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