Swedish Appeals Court Orders ISP to Divulge SweTorrent Users Identities
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There was an interesting ruling made recently in a Swedish court. After months of fighting in the Swedish court system, the court of appeals have ruled that TeliaSonera, a telecom giant, must divulge the names and addresses of several people behind SweTorrents to Swedish film company Svensk Filmindustri.

“The court of appeal has decided today to uphold the Soedertoern district court’s decision to order an Internet service provider to give out the names and addresses of the holders of certain IP-addresses,” a court statement said.
Failure to comply to the court order would mean that the telecom giant could face a fine of 750,000 kronor (96,523 dollars).
The ruling came about as a result of IPred, the controversial Swedish copyright reform law.
The reason this ruling is quite important is that this is the crossroads for the future of a Swedish digital environment. If an ISP is forced to divulge personal information to rights holders of an alleged copyright violator, it would mean confirmation of an Americanization of Swedish law.

We say this because one only has to look to the United States to see what happens when rights holders have the power to unmask file-sharers. Tens of thousands of people in the United States have recieved legal threats thanks to an American copyright reform law known as the DMCA. Two high profile cases, the Tenenbaum case and the Jammie Thomas cases, saw convicted file-sharers facing fines of hundreds of thousands of US dollars or several million dollars.

On a related issue recently, Cory Doctorow has some interesting comments on tough copyright laws while discussing the litigation between Viacom and YouTube.
“The lawmakers who say that they favour these draconian copyright powers are not on the side of creators. The creators are the ones busily shovelling their creative works on to YouTube. These laws are designed to provide full employment for the litigation industry,” Doctorow commented, “and to encourage the moral hazard that has TV and record companies turning into lawsuit factories.”

As it becomes easier to litigate random internet users, some companies may find themselves attracted to a business model not to promote and produce entertainment, but rather promote and push for more litigation. If there are any obstacles toward getting hundreds of thousands of settlements, then the entertainment industry simply lobbies the governments in question to remove those obstacles.

It’s sad to see Sweden legally breaking down like this. Once, Swedish citizens could be proud to have an environment where things like free speech and privacy could be expected. Now, it’s starting to look like they’ll have neither now.

xfernanx Reviewed by xfernanx on . Swedish Appeals Court Orders ISP to Divulge SweTorrent Users Identities Swedish Appeals Court Orders ISP to Divulge SweTorrent Users Identities ------------------------- There was an interesting ruling made recently in a Swedish court. After months of fighting in the Swedish court system, the court of appeals have ruled that TeliaSonera, a telecom giant, must divulge the names and addresses of several people behind SweTorrents to Swedish film company Svensk Filmindustri. “The court of appeal has decided today to uphold the Soedertoern district court’s Rating: 5