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MPAA and FBI Help To Train Swedish Police 165

Posted by kdawson from the Pirate-Bay-not-obvious-enough? dept.
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."
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MPAA and FBI Help To Train Swedish Police More

MPAA and FBI Help To Train Swedish Police

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  • Revolution (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @07:28AM (#18079906)
    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: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      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 only people that took away your rights was yourselves.

      Wake up.

      • stupid thinking (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @09:03AM (#18080430)
        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.
      • 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 people also include the voters of New York, Los Angeles, Orlando, Nashville, etc. Quite a number of whom have a direct stake in the entertainment industry.

        Now and again, they become Governor of California or President of the United States.

      • Which "People" ? (Score:3, Informative)

        by abreauj ( 49848 )

        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 behavi

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Morosoph ( 693565 )

      It's time the governments of the world feared the people.
      Bad idea. Fear doesn't get people to do what you want.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by jackharrer ( 972403 )
        Actually it does, but only for a very short time.

      • It's time the governments of the world feared the people.
        Bad idea. Fear doesn't get people to do what you want.
        Of course it does, just see how well it's working with all the nukes etc that the US has... asif they'd ever actually have to use their weapons to get things done, and if they'd ever invade a country everyone in that country will stop fighting and do as the US says... or... hmmm...

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goering#Quotations [wikipedia.org]
    • That's insightful? Thats just good old fashioned misguided anarchy.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by takeya ( 825259 ) *
        Revoultion is not anarchy.

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

        • Re:Revolution (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Beyond_GoodandEvil ( 769135 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @09:37AM (#18080642) Homepage
          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.
          • Indeed... there is a reason the French sent the Americans the Statue of Liberty.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by takeya ( 825259 ) *
            You know despite the government always seeking loopholes, our constitutional rights are still enumerated and guaranteed and more often than not they are respected. When they don't, it makes the news. That's why we hear so much about civil liberties violations, because they happen pretty rarely, and are usually rectified.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by tenco ( 773732 )
      Destroy Power
      Not People.

    • Re:Revolution (Score:4, Insightful)

      by goldspider ( 445116 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @10:33AM (#18081146) Homepage
      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.
    • 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.

      It is this kind of talk, modded up "Insightful," that makes the world fear the Geek.

      The bearded bomb-throwing anarchist who would be instantly recognizable in the editorial cartoons of 1906.

      The old-time anarchist had at least some sense of proportion. His cause somewhat larger than having to pay for a print of a movie that cost

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Skye16 ( 685048 )
        Actually, our anger is not so much placed towards having to pay for a movie, it's for having to watch some pretty greedy assholes, on an epic scale, demanding more and more money from us while giving less and less. That's the nature of capitalism, I suppose, but that doesn't hide the fact that truly ridiculous greed is a horrible human sickness. Self-interest is one thing, or even eating the last slice of pizza without asking anybody else, but getting 400 million dollars as a severance package is beyond r

        • I don't understand this. Theft is theft. If they went to charge $100.00 per track, that is within their right. It's called supply and demand -- the more people are willing to pay, the more they are willing to supply. If enough people are not willing to pay it, the price will come down. "Enough people being willing to steal it" does not factor into that equation. Your choices as a consumer are: a) buy it or b) don't buy it. Choosing option "c) download it" isn't some political statement, it's just t

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by jZnat ( 793348 ) *
            But the problem with your argument is that the supply is infinite. Therefore, the price should be nothing due to how economics work.
            • The supply is only infinite if the suppliers wish to make it so. They do not. Stating that "well it should be nothing" not justify stealing it. The fact remains that it is not free, and that is the choice of those who own the rights to it -- not the consumers.
            • You actually marked me as 'foe' because you don't like that I call "stealing" ... "stealing"?

              That's hilarious, thanks for the chuckle.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Wildclaw ( 15718 )
            Please don't cite supply and demand when discussing intellectual "property".

            The theory of supply and demand was created explicity to deal with situations where the supply is limited. Todays market where coorporations tries to artifically limit supply using different means is nothing more than an abomination that spits right in the face of the words "free market".

            Also note that while the free market is the most efficent way to deal with supply and demand issues, it may not always be the best way. I personall

            • Please don't cite supply and demand when discussing intellectual "property".

              The theory of supply and demand was created explicity to deal with situations where the supply is limited. Todays market where coorporations tries to artifically limit supply using different means is nothing more than an abomination that spits right in the face of the words "free market".

              Artificial limitations are still limitations -- it is still a scarce resource if it's not being produced. Whether it's not being produced because the supplier doesn't wish too or the supplier cannot do so is irrelevant.

              Also note that while the free market is the most efficent way to deal with supply and demand issues, it may not always be the best way. I personally am against pure free market on labor, not because it isn't efficent, but because it also has a huge impact on the happiness of society due to the large salary gaps between different people. Treating humans as things without feelings is a fault and downfall of many economic theories.

              That's a completely separate discussion. I'll say only that I believe that the underlying assumption that all humans have equal potential is flawed -- and that a free market seems to be the only one that recognizes this.

  • Bloc-ization (Score:5, Funny)

    by kahei ( 466208 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @07:31AM (#18079920) Homepage

    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.

  • Good article, trolling comment- (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Aeron65432 ( 805385 ) <agiamba@nOSPAM.gmail.com> on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @07:39AM (#18079970) Homepage
    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: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Balp ( 7960 )
      All the bad press has been on it being MPA and IPFI, not on the FBI. FBI have been working with the swedish goverment for a long time. In both directions. The differece in the storied about MPA did at the scool from the MPA and the swedish police makes this an intersting story.

      That the other speaker at the conference was the swedish version of RIAA that have tried to use scare tactice already, doesn't make it better. The only problem with FBI is that they are talking together with MPA at this occation.

    • Re:Good article, trolling comment- (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @07:58AM (#18080070)
      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.
      • I think it's a great idea. We should also get other parties known for their neutrality to educate the police - for example PETA, Microsoft or Scientology.

      • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @10:49AM (#18081368)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • it is a private company training a foreign national police force to enforce their private agenda.

        Cultural nationalism can put piracy on the public agenda.

        The domestic product withers in the face of the big-budget foreign film or video. You have no hope of building an export market if your rare commercial success abroad is casually pirated.

    • Re:Good article, trolling comment- (Score:5, Interesting)

      by bjourne ( 1034822 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @08:20AM (#18080184) Homepage Journal
      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- (Score:5, Insightful)

        by russ1337 ( 938915 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @08:48AM (#18080350)
        >>> 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: (Score:1, Offtopic)

          by russ1337 ( 938915 )
          ah. sry for the sh!te grammer, sp etc.. forgot to delete rest of sentence. no coffee yet.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by init100 ( 915886 )

          didn't that turn out to be against local law (TPB was working within the law?).

          That hasn't been determined yet. The police have imaged their servers, but refuse to give them back. They probably intend to keep them forever, maybe sell them to some criminals to make a tidy profit, as has been recently reported in local newspapers.

          The case main prosecutor actually wrote in a PM six months before the raid that TPB was probably not doing anything illegal, or at least not doing something that they could prosecute. You can't prosecute someone for contributory copyright infringement witho

      • No, the Swedish police surely don't have any problems getting the expertise from other sources. My guess is that this is more to please the US corporate interests than actually training someone to go after pirates. Once the training is complete, all they need to do is some token efforts against piracy, then go back to catching kind of people the public really wants taken down.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by pimpimpim ( 811140 )
      Who is this 'we' you're talking about? Are you as an American citizen also a part of the industrial structures as the MPAA? Would you fight for the rights of the MPAA if they called you to do so? Are you not a patriot if you don't agree with what the MPAA tells you to do? It sounds like you should rethink your stance on who is running your beloved country.

      Sidenote: The US militairy troops in e.g. Germany have no authority outside the borders of their camps, also not over the German military. Also, in many

    • Re:Good article, trolling comment- (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Intrinsic ( 74189 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @08:37AM (#18080278) Homepage

      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.

      • I'm Swedish and I think like this: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I'm Swedish and I think like this:

        A) Copying IS NOT stealing.
        B) As long as the people that made the data that is being copied has a roof over their head and food to eat they can't complain too much. If they have more they should just STFU.
        C) A pirate is not bad if he does not use copied content to make money. Pirates that profit is however an issue to talk about.
        D) We live and die. If somebody copies a file in order to increase their life's value I say go ahead and let him. It's all about making people's li
      • You put something out on the net or make it digital it no longer has any substance.

        In this respect, how is the Internet different than analog broadcast? I can't touch or hold any broadcast any more than I can touch or hold a digital stream.

        The reasoning you have on sharing ideas seems pretty odd on a site whose constituents routinely say that the recording and movie industries and their products don't have any ideas.

        I think your argument is specious in another way, because it is continually getting easier

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Yaa 101 ( 664725 )
      "We train police around the world, in almost all situations, our assistance is requested and welcomed."

      I bet the Iraqis disagree.
    • Mod parent down; certainly not "Insightful".

      The reasons why are almost entirely covered in the other replies, but I would add the following:

      America's interference in matters of copyright and DRM is *never* welcomed , it is simply tolerated because:
      1. the US is a significant market for all kinds of good and the world's leading producer of media, and therefore it's trade agreements are a serious bargaining chip
      2. the US is also the world's leading military power, which gives it power in other domains (e.g. in

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yes, everyone was so thankful for the the training of the contras.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by LWATCDR ( 28044 )
      In the US there are military personal from Germany, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Colombia, the Philippines, Egypt, Singapore, Thailand, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, Qatar, Bahrain, Canada, and many other counties. The US often trains with other nations and trains personal from other nations here in the US.
      It is called international cooperation. There are also students from many nations in US universities and researchers from many nations at US labs as well. These are good things.

      Now the MPAA in Sweden... What ar

  • Uh (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @07:41AM (#18079978)
    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 (Score:5, Interesting)

      by jackharrer ( 972403 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @09:04AM (#18080438)
      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?
    • They teach them the MPAA way: Sue first, ask questions later.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by aliquis ( 678370 )
      I guess it's because the police got some power to do something while the MPAA doesn't (or well, shouldn't have) ;)

      To my fellow Swedes: Maybe it's time to try qnext? I like it, it must mean something (I don't use it for filesharing thought, yet...)

  • In next election.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DrYak ( 748999 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @07:41AM (#18079980) Homepage
    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.
    • And suddenly the popularity of the "Piratpartiet" bumps up to 56%, and steals 2/3 of the sweedish parliament on next election...

      and if this Geek fantasy doesn't materialize, what then?

      Sweden has 800 movie theaters for a population of nine million, tickets cost about $10 US. Film in Sweden [sweden.se] That suggests something less than a blanket popular endorsement of piracy.

      • That suggests something less than a blanket popular endorsement of piracy.

        You seem to have a very fixed opinion of who a pirate is... my guess is that many people treat the theatre as a social outing, and have no qualms downloading the movie they see either before, so they can pre-screen what they want to see, or after, if they found they really enjoyed it.

        Movie piracy doesn't hurt theatre sales, it hurts DVD sales. Of course, I have a feeling you'll find plenty of DVD rental and sales outlets in Sweden

  • Now there is a thought. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Don_dumb ( 927108 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @07:44AM (#18079994)

    "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 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by pubjames ( 468013 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @07:46AM (#18080012)
    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".
    • So what, in communist countries you had to study Marxism/Leninism, no matter what you studied. At least so far the copycrap hasn't been forced down every other science branch.

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by 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.

      • Er, children don't study computer science in the UK.

        Well, they call it ICT.

        I did exactly that, and have never heard of this so-called software license module.

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/ict/lega l/ [bbc.co.uk]

        • http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/ict/lega [bbc.co.uk] l/

          A scary questionaire. Aside from the didactics, which are poor, there were a surprising number of factual errors.

          "If you buy a legal copy of a CD, it's okay to copy it"

          was marked as wrong when it could be true or false. It was riddled with this sort of error.

          If you are going to talk about the law, then you should get
          it correct.
          • Actually, in the UK, it is ALWAYS illegal to copy a CD... new legislation is currently under review to fix this issue. Of course, the line said OK, not Legal. The questionnaire appears to be trying to moralize legislation.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by init100 ( 915886 )

      In my university we used so much free software that it would be strange to have a course teaching students that "it's illegal to copy software". :)

    • Well, in the UK children who study computer science study a module that basically tells them how to comply with software licences

      I hope they cover all the basic types from closed source commercial to BSD and GNU. When they understand the licences, they can make good choices in software selection.

      I used to buy software just on features alone. Now I select software based on TCO, liability, usefulleness within the license, and features. In short, I use the best value. Low value restricted use software at hi

  • I know, it's premature and immature, but... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SlovakWakko ( 1025878 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @07:48AM (#18080018)
    ...so long, piratebay, and thanks for all the torrents...

  • Comment from the Pirat Party (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tcdk ( 173945 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @07:52AM (#18080046) Homepage Journal
    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 (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jackharrer ( 972403 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @08:44AM (#18080318)
      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.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Slyswede ( 945801 )
        Swedish politicians are actually not funded directly by private interests, since we don't have personal elections in the true sense of the word. Although you are allowed to check your personal favourite on the ballot, your vote still counts mainly against the party of that candidate. While this reduces the need for candidates to fund their own election campaigns, it creates an interesting problem in my opinion since the political parties instead get their funding from the taxpayers. This means there's no

  • The most wonderful irony... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Sj0 ( 472011 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @08:17AM (#18080164) Journal
    The most wonderful irony is that when i quote Orwell to illustrate my opinion of what this means, *I'm* the criminal.
  • so we don't have to fight them here?
  • ...the FBI trains the swedish police - that's not as exciting as one might think. i guess (even though i got no facts on that) that the FBI (or some other "secret service") train almost all of the police forces somewhere...

    but why the heck is a lobbyist group involved? yeah, sure. they could give a speech on the matters of piracy and on how we all are doomed if we don't stop the uberevil pirates of the world from ruining markets, margins and stuff. they could even hand out some flyers. a nice powerpoint
    • I want to know if the FBI and MPAA represenatives were given extensive training in the difference in laws between the two countries concerning copyright and civil rights before teaching the police force how to properly enforce the laws as they apply.

  • Wrong perception in the USA (Score:4, Insightful)

    by blind biker ( 1066130 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @08:46AM (#18080342) Journal
    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.

  • we'd never do that (Score:2, Informative)

    by oneplus999 ( 907816 )
    yeah cause its not like americans ever got training from the french during the american revolution
  • Why am I suddenly thinking of puppet-police all talking like Swedish Chef from The Muppets..

  • So ? You swedish are going to let this slide ? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by unity100 ( 970058 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @08:54AM (#18080382) Homepage Journal
    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.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by larske ( 518751 )
      My experience (as a swede) is that the general public in Sweden (the middle-swenson or medelsvensson i.e. joe sixpack) are mostly ignorant of important issues as long as they get their weekly dose of celebrity news and glorification of national sport heroes. Intellectual property issues are mostly unknown, the problems with patents are rarely discussed and people do not understand how big business (and the media monopolists in particular) lobby away our freedom and integrity.
  • It's not a threat to our sovereignity to seek advice and skill from other countries police forces, or from interest groups who knows about piracy and how it is done (and are willing to help).
    Why are we doing this?
    Well because the US has put some pressure on the last government, so slowly changes are being made. Why do we care what the US says?
    We don't want to be the next Cuba (or Iraq before the invasion), our biggest export market is the US (ok it's only 10% but still).

    So to please our economic ove

  • MPAA and FBI Help To Train Swedish Police (Score:3, Funny)

    by iminplaya ( 723125 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @09:51AM (#18080744) Journal
    You know, this is how the Vietnam war started. First we send in "advisors". Then we make up a story about being attacked off the coast of Gotland, and the rest is history.

  • Isnt it also curious that FBI spares resources (Score:3, Interesting)

    by unity100 ( 970058 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @09:59AM (#18080816) Homepage Journal
    for that, whereas, as they say, a 'worldwide battle against terrorism' is going on at the same time ?

    Very curious that, one important government agency can spare resources to spend for a PRIVATE organisation's whims, whereas there are army units deployed in iraq, afghanistan, pakistan is battling a lot of internation terrorist organisations trying to get roots in there, and terrorists are constantly trying to sneak into major western countries ?

    Either they are screwing us over terrorist threat level, or they are screwing us over our taxes.
    • My knowledge of USA intelligence agencies comes only from TV/cinema but...

      CIA: Edward Wilson [imdb.com]
      FBI: Fox Mulder [imdb.com]

      2 different agencies which have different responsibilities. I'd suggest, again only from watching popular culture, that the CIA is more focussed on your 'worldwide battle against terrorism' than the FBI.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Ogive17 ( 691899 )
      At first I thought you weren't American, and I was going to let it slide... then I read the last line where you used "us" and "our".

      Do you understand what the FBI actually does? It's a little bit of everything. But being the son of a retired police officer, I know they do a lot of training. If someone requests help, they provide it... it's pretty simple.
    • Not that I don't agree that it's probably an inappropriate use of resources, but it's not a zero sum game. It's possible for multiple people to tackle multiple problems and still get results in both areas. In fact, beyond a certain point, having more people working on one particular thing is counterproductive. This is commonly known as the law of diminishing returns.

  • Sweden: Grow a Set (Score:2, Informative)

    by organgtool ( 966989 )
    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 fe

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by yoder ( 178161 ) *
      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.

  • Justice? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by World.Pop(MPAA) ( 998700 )
    I love how the RIAA and MPAA can buy access to the FBI, yet the millions of Americans (heck non-Americans as well) are second-class citizens in the eyes of the Dept of Justice. You mean to tell me the abating intellectual property theft in Europe is more pertinent of an issue than fighting "white collar" crime? Ask the victims of Corporate Criminals (Enron) or dirty politicians (Randy Cunningham) whether they want a 16 year old boy downloading music jailed, or someone who violates the American people's fa
  • I'm glad to see that the FBI has its priorities straight so that it can use its limited resources in a way that will protect the people. We wouldn't want them to squander their budget on less important things like tracking down murderers, child molesters and terrorists.
  • Or maybe the Swedes just wanted to see what the RIAA and FBI are up to so they can help find ways to circumvent their methods.

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