MPAA and FBI Help To Train Swedish Police

Several readers let us know about a program in which a US FBI agent and employees of the MPAA led a seminar for Swedish police officers in methods of finding and stopping illegal downloading from the Internet. The writer at zeropaid.com says, "I bet the Swedish people are going to love to find out that the US government and a US lobbying group now have a hand in training their police personnel. So much for the notion of national sovereignty." Reader Oxygen provided a bit of translation from an article in Swedish on IDG.se: "According to Bertil Ramsell, responsible for the course, the purpose of the visit was to give the invited speakers a chance to explain to the students what their organization's purpose was. But in a report from the IIPA, the purpose was to educate students in anti-piracy."

Revolution

Get out your guns and start shooting at heads of state and their cronies, and also the corporate CEO's and their cronies.

It's time the governments of the world feared the people.

Re:

It's time the governments of the world feared the people.

Bad idea. Fear doesn't get people to do what you want.

Re:

Actually it does, but only for a very short time.

Re:Revolution

It's a good thing that guns are all but completely banned in Sweden (a few registered long guns for hunting are permitted), otherwise the government might have to face an armed revolt. One can only hope that my own government in the USA will someday have nothing to fear from the People as well.

stupid thinking

since when did I have any input into government policy? I get to vote once every three years and that is it.

NO, its the corporates that control things...like the mass media, party funding, and so on.

Re:Revolution

Revoultion is not anarchy.

It is revolution. Out with the old, in with the new.

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
-The Who Won't Get Fooled Again.

Bloc-ization

As time goes on and power is consolidated in the world, smaller powers will find themselves increasingly strongly attached to the main power bloc with which they are affiliated. Thus European nations find themselves increasingly Americanized, Asia finds itself increasingly Sinicized, and the Islamic world finds itself increasingly dominated by relatively uniform fundamentalist thinking, as opposed to the diverse, relatively secular regional ideologies that prevailed in the last century.

Eventually, the three nations of Eurasia, Eastasia and Oceania will settle down into their near-endless cold war.

P.S. Eastasia will win.

Re:Bloc-ization

Eventually?!?

What are you talking about?

We've always been at war with the pirat...terroris...er...EastAsia

Good article, trolling comment-

I thought the article was fairly interesting but this was just one troll of a comment. "I bet the Swedish people are going to love to find out that the US government and a US lobbying group now have a hand in training their police personnel. So much for the notion of national sovereignty."

There are United States military troops in Germany, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Colombia, the Phillipines, Indonesia, Kosovo, Egypt, Singapore, Thailand, the UK, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, Qatar, Bahrain, Cuba, etc. etc. etc. We run the Iraqi and Afghanistan governments. Training Swedish police is not a threat to national sovereignty, and if you dispute this, it still barely scrapes the iceberg. It's hysteria to complain that training foreign governments is intruding on their sovereignty if they request it.

We train police around the world, in almost all situations, our assistance is requested and welcomed. (by the governments, at least) If the wholly independent Swedish government and the people were opposed, there might be a case.

Complain about training them in bad DMCA-style law enforcement, or in RIAA-scare-tactics. Don't complain about a foreign country asking and receiving assistance.

Re:Good article, trolling comment-

It isn't so much that it's the US government, as it is a private company training a foreign national police force to enforce their private agenda. The government is one thing, they could know something about enforcing law and protecting the peace.
The MPAA aren't soldiers, they aren't police, and they aren't a neutral public institution. Their concerns isn't for the citizens. They're there solely to make sure their profits are safeguarded and that things will go exactly the way they want them to. They've essentially bought their way into law enforcement and there's something profoundly unsettling about that.

Re:Good article, trolling comment-

The MPAA aren't soldiers, they aren't police,

Apparently the RIAA is a full-fledged police force [slashdot.org], so I'm guessing the MPAA just wanted in on the "let's dress up like Hollywood SWAT team members and pretend to be police" action too.

Re:Good article, trolling comment-

Do you think American FBI agents are the only people in the world who knows how to catch file sharers? Or that there is so little technical know-how in Swedish organizations that we really need Americans to help us? It is not, Swedish cops are just as good at using computers as American cops are (if not better). Maybe they could use some help in improving their interrogation techniques, but they sure as hell do not bring Russian FSB agents over. The real reason why they invite the FBI has nothing to do with training.

What the big fuss is about, is that the Swedish police is tacitly agreeing that it will follow FBI:s and MPAA:s anti-piracy policies and do their dirty work for them. Which means do everything they can to shut down thepiratebay.

Re:Good article, trolling comment-

>>> Which means do everything they can to shut down thepiratebay

Firstly, I expect the FBI and MPAA will be tainted to train to American laws. Obviously the Unless copyright laws are aligned between the two countries we're likely to see the Swedish Police overstepping the mark, like they did when they confiscated TPB servers previously - didn't that turn out to be against local law (TPB was working within the law?).

Re:Good article, trolling comment-

Complain about training them in bad DMCA-style law enforcement, or in RIAA-scare-tactics. Don't complain about a foreign country asking and receiving assistance.

I doubt very highly, that the people of Sweden are in any way interested in copyright infringement law enforcement. Its lunacy to even be talking about it, copyright infringement is our countries way of trying to hold back the tide of an every increasing momentum of free expression. This isn't book and print. You put something out on the net or make it digital it no longer has any substance. It exists in the minds of the people that create it and experience it. Sharing ideas whether they originated with you are not is a natural part of how we express our selfs. Get over it, and move the fuck on.

Uh

From TFA:

FBI agent Andrew Myers and the MPAA have given a group of six Swedish police officers extensive training on how to effectively combat piracy and catch people who engage in illegal downloading from the internet.

How exactly is the MPAA able to teach Swedish police how to "effectively combat piracy", when the MPAA themselves fail to achieve that?

Re:Uh

The same they did in Poland. There are three guys coming to your home: judge, cop and IT guy. If you don't allow them in they sign a warrant on spot and enter your premises. They even have certain pricelist, like 1 PLN for a mp3, 5 PLN for a film. Plus retail price for all illegal software. If you don't pay or cooperate - they just take your computer. And they have no problems with Win software and security (as if anybody have).

Is it a law? Or it's an abuse?

In next election....

And suddenly the popularity of the "Piratpartiet [wikipedia.org]" bumps up to 56%, and steals 2/3 of the sweedish parliament on next election...

Thank you, RIAA, this was the most intelligent thing to do.

Now there is a thought.

"I bet the Swedish people are going to love to find out that the US government and a US lobbying group now have a hand in training their police personnel. So much for the notion of national sovereignty."

I hope the Swedish will love it just as much as the Iraqi people do.

UK children

Well, in the UK children who study computer science study a module that basically tells them how to comply with software licences, and that it is illegal to "copy software".

I know, it's premature and immature, but...

...so long, piratebay, and thanks for all the torrents...

Comment from the Pirat Party

From http://www2.piratpartiet.se/ [piratpartiet.se] in my translation:

"The judicial system is make a mistake a see these lobby organisations as some sort of private police corp. Their only interest is to keep their old profitable monopoly. There organisations have nothing to do in our judicial system, says The Pirate Partys partyleader Rickard Falkvinge."

That pretty much sums it up if you ask me.

Re:Comment from the Pirat Party

Problem is that 'old profitable monopoly' finances politicians, which in turn do whatever those monopolies want.
It's called politics.
No way to do anything to it, as long as they have at least a little of their reputation left. Which is not much, anyway.

The most wonderful irony...

The most wonderful irony is that when i quote Orwell to illustrate my opinion of what this means, *I'm* the criminal.

Wrong perception in the USA

Folks, Swedes are not angels. They are people just like you and me. Yes, there is no RIAA or MPAA in Sweden (yet), but that doesn't mean that there aren't wealthy and powerful people who are pushing their profit-driven agenda, there. The same is true for my country, Finland. Yeah, it's where Linus was born and raised, but it doesn't make it heaven on earth. For example, we have our share of corrupt CxOs, don't worry.

So ? You swedish are going to let this slide ?

The swedish i know would raise hell because of that issue, its crooked perpetrators, anyone who participated and related government agencies.

There are no news around to that extent yet. We are waiting to see some swedish democracy in action.