Swedish File-Sharer convicted but judge blames music industry!
Written on May 6, 2008 – 12:47 pm
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten,
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A Swedish court has convicted a 31 year old file-sharer for uploading 4,500 music tracks and 30 movies with the filesharing application Direct Connect. He was fined to 10000 kronor ($1650) and will have to pay the cost of the trial which will be another 44670 kronor ($7360).
Interestingly enough the court blames the industry for a part of the mess they created. That is also why the 31-year-old was not sent to prison but instead given a suspended sentence and a fine.
According to Sweden’s Anti-Piracy Agency (APB) this is an important case because it will set an example and general a matter of principle for other file-sharers. “It’s clear that the court takes seriously the extensive infringement of which the man is guilty. The huge amount of illegal file sharing which takes place in Sweden causes creators tremendous harm,” said APB’s lawyer Sara Lindbäck.
But I can’t imagine that the open accusation from this court that they have themselves to blame is the result they were hoping for. My guess is that most File-sharers will use this verdict more as an excuse to share and download content more than before. After all, even a judge agrees that the current situation is a mess.
More background information in this post at TorrentFreak.com.
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