First P2P prosecution case in Sweden

In Sweden, for the first time an individual internet user is prosecuted
for file-sharing. A young man from Västerås has shared the film ‘Hip Hip
Hora’ via the Internet and is theoretically facing a maximum of 2 years
prison sentence. But the public prosecutor doesn’t have a lot of
confidence in the case. “As these cases do not involve criminals, but
instead quite ordinary people who share their files, any prison sentence
would certainly be suspended,” Uppsala prosecutor Katrin Rudström told the
newspaper Aftonbladet. Most likely, the case will result in a fine. In
that case, the Swedish right-holders will have a hard time starting mass
court cases against Swedish file-sharers, because they cannot demand
identifying information in case of offences that can be settled with
financial penalties.

Meanwhile, Bahnhof, the oldest and largest Swedish ISP, has reached an
agreement with the Swedish anti-piracy group Antipiratbyrån (APB), thus
ending a hilarious P.R. battle between the two. On 10 March 2005, APB
convinced police enforcement to raid the offices of the ISP without prior
notice and confiscate 4 servers. Triumphantly, the MPA issued a press
release announcing ‘the file-sharing industry in Sweden was crippled’. But
Bahnhof hit back, and accused the anti-piracy group of uploading the
illegal material themselves. The rest of the material was allegedly
uploaded by employees who acted without their employers knowledge. Bahnhof
fired them.

First Swede prosecuted for sharing files on net (24.03.2005)
http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=1172&date=20050324

MPAA: Raid on Sweden’s Oldest and Largest ISP Cripples European Piracy
Scene (in MS-word only, 11.03.2005)
http://www.mpaa.org/MPAAPress/2005/2005_03_11.doc

Aftonbladet: Case against internet-provider terminated (Swedish, 04.04.2005)
http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/it/story/0,2789,626694,00.html