James Delahunty
26 Oct 2005 13:36
The man at the centre of a file sharing debate in Sweden has been found guilty of copyright violations and find 16,000 kronor ($2,000) by Västmanland district court in Västerås. The 28 year old made newspaper headlines in Sweden as the country has over 800,000 file sharers. He had originally admitted to Police that he had made the movie Hip Hip Hora available for download from his computer on a DC++ hub. However, in court he withdrew the confession and said it was just a misunderstanding.
The court considered that his backtracking was a fabrication and dismissed attempts by his lawyer to discredit the evidence put against the man. In the judgment the court pointed out that file sharing could cause serious damage to the film industry and that it should be a crime that is taken seriously. The fact that he didn't profit off his activity was the reason for the court's decision to simply hand down a fine instead of handing down a prison term.
"I am satisfied that it was stated that this is a criminal offence and that it can be seen as public distribution," Prosecutor Chatrine Rudström said. However, apparently since the crime only ended up leading to a fine, the police cannot request person details from Internet Service Providers or carry out raids on homes as a result, since they wont know who was using the IP address. Rudström said she was going to wait to see similar cases before she draws conclusions about what this means for file sharers in Sweden.
Another similar trial is to be held on Wednesday in Sollentuna district court.
Source:
The Local