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."

Re:UK children

[Anonymous Coward]

Er, children don't study computer science in the UK. They might have a GCSE in IT, but that's totally different to computer science. Generally, people don't study computer science until they are adults at university. I did exactly that, and have never heard of this so-called software license module.

we'd never do that

[oneplus999]

yeah cause its not like americans ever got training from the french during the american revolution

Re:stupid thinking

[Ash Vince]

It is interesting though that we are kicking all this fuss up about Iran and Korea having any sort of nuclear program even though they insist it is for power generation only. Yet Isreal have a well known nuclear weapons program which we have been ignoring for years.

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/nuke/ [fas.org]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/corresponden t/2841377.stm [bbc.co.uk]

Sweden: Grow a Set

[organgtool]

Up until now, I was always apprehensive of visiting Sweden for fear of being assaulted from all angles by pirates trying to get me to buy a bootleg of Justin Timerlake's latest CD, but now I will be able walk the streets of Sweden with confidence.

All jokes aside, this is very disturbing. Even more disturbing is the fact that I have read several comments that don't seem too troubled by this behavior. People have forgotten that the police are a resource used to protect the physical well-being of their fellow citizens. They are not there to protect copyright holders from other countries. And time spent investigating copyright infringement by the police is less time spent investigating real CRIMES. Sweden needs to grow some balls and tell the MPAA to stay out of the police department.

Re:Sweden: Grow a Set

[yoder]

Exactly. Our law enforcement is quickly becoming little more than hired guns for corporate interests. They have become a twisted fun house mirror view of law and order.

If other countries give into our corporate attack animals then that is their problem and they deserve everything they get. If other countries see their own sovereignty as something to be given away to US industries then they deserve everything they get.

Re:Uh

[pilot1]

Unless your drives are encrypted, that's not going to stop them when they boot from a livecd.

Which "People" ?

[abreauj]

I think it is time the people realise that the government is an instrument of the PEOPLE, they work for and represent the PEOPLE. I think alot of people have forgotten this.

The American government represents the American "people". But the question is, who are the American "people"? Sadly, the Supreme Court ruled in 1886 that a corporation is a person, with the same constitiutional rights as a human person. And as "people', corporations are immortal, incredibly wealthy, and exhibit psychopathic behavior.

So the American government, over the past 121 years, has increasingly represented primarily the corporate "people" who have all the bribe money, and relegated the human "people" to second-class status.