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hbgator

Fri 02 Jun, 2006


Swedish online piracy crackdown sparks row

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Sweden's justice minister denied on Friday that U.S.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> government pressure had led to a crack down on Internet piracy this week in an escalating row over copyright protection and freedom of information.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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The row started on Wednesday when police detained three men on suspicion of breaking copyright law for involvement in a file sharing Web site,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> The Pirate Bay.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> Police closed the Web site and seized Internet servers.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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Swedish public television said on Thursday an official in the Justice Ministry had put pressure on the police and prosecutor's office to act against the Web site on a request from the U.S.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> government and the U.S.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> movie industry for action.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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Justice Minister Thomas Bodstrom rejected the report.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>"I have not had contact at all with the U.S.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> government as regards this question and I have not had any meetings or discussed this matter,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>"<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> he told Swedish radio.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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He said he had never given instructions to the police or the state prosecutor in individual cases.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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But two parliamentarians reported Bodstrom to a special house committee which probes government actions.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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In a further response to the raid this week,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> which grabbed front page headlines,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> the Web site of the Swedish national police was shut down all day by what local media said was a concerted attack by hackers to overload it.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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Sweden only last year made the downloading of movie and music files from the Internet illegal after being singled out for criticism by Hollywood.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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But some have seen the law and the police crackdown as going against freedom of information and openness linked to the development of the Internet.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>"This is not a matter of file sharing,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> it is a matter of control of the flow of information,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>"<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> said Rickard Falkvinge,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> who has launched the Pirate Party to fight for changes in copyright law in a September general election.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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Recording industry lobby the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>(IFPI)<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> and the U.S.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> Motion Picture Association have waged a global campaign against online piracy and previously saw Sweden as a weak link.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>"It is not a question of freedom of information.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> Of the top hundred files to be shared,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> 90 percent were Hollywood productions,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>"<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> said Monique Wadsted,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> a lawyer at Stockholm's MAQS firm,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> who represents the MPA in Europe