Sweden pirate fined $652,000 for sharing one movie torrent

[Himanshu Arora]

An Ex-Moderator of a now defunct BitTorrent site swebits.org has been hit with the hefty fine of $652,000 (4.3m Swedish Krona) by the Västmanlands District Court for uploading a pre-release copy of a Swedish language movie Beck – Buried Alive, TorrentFreak reports. This fine is the largest ever awarded for illegally uploading a Swedish movie.

According to anti-piracy Rights Alliance organization lawyer Henrik Pontén, the fine amount is equivalent to the amount the movie studio would have charged for the license to distribute the movie for free. He also explained that the poor video quality of the uploaded movie, which (according to the claimant) would damage its reputation, was also a major contributing factor in the decision.

The unnamed 28-year-old man was deemed by the rights holder as Sweden's "worst ever" movie pirate. He uploaded a total of 508 movies and TV shows between 2008 and 2011. In addition to the fine, he received a suspended jail sentence plus 160 hours community service for the remaining 517 pieces of content.

Voices are being raised against the decision. The local pirate party is outraged by the court's ruling and has asked for a radical reform in the copyright law. "Swedish court says that BT-site Swebits is "organised crime". Come on!!!", tweeted Peter Sunde, who co-founded The Pirate Bay.

A similar crime in United States would attract a maximum penalty of $150,000.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/55063-sweden-pirate-fined-652000-for-sharing-one-movie-torrent.html

 

[wastedkill]

Wish I was awarded money At-least in Sweden they award you money for pirating!

 

[cliffordcooley]

An Ex-Moderator of a now defunct BitTorrent site swebits.org has been awarded $652,000

Is the statement worded correctly?

 

[davislane1]

@cliffordcooley I had to do a double take on that myself. According to the original article on Torrent Freak, the ex-mod has to pony up to a $652,000 damages award.

"A moderator and uploader of one of Sweden’s oldest but now defunct private torrent sites has been hit with a huge damages award. For uploading a single pre-release movie the 28-year-old is now required to pay $652,000. . ."
- Torrent Freak

 

[lipe123]

An Ex-Moderator of a now defunct BitTorrent site swebits.org has been awarded $652,000

Is the statement worded correctly?

it sais awarded $652,000 in in damages
damages is not a good reward.

 

[wastedkill]

They must have fined him that much for 1. he has enough income in a year to pay it in the next few years or 2. because they know he cant pay it so they wont ask for payments due to him not earning enough to pony up to pay it.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

They must have fined him that much for 1. he has enough income in a year to pay it in the next few years or 2. because they know he cant pay it so they wont ask for payments due to him not earning enough to pony up to pay it.

Huh?

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Now if only they'll do this to all pirates the internet 'could' be a better place.

 

[hammer2085]

They should have also sold his kidney & other body parts. Wait maybe that's what he will do..

 

[captaincranky]

Now if only they'll do this to all pirates the internet 'could' be a better place.

Why, so you can pay Amazon 5 bucks to watch a movie you can rent for a dollar at Redbox? Would that be because it's convenient, or because it's the, "right thing to do"?

(I understand that I'm speaking in the "colonies northeast's vernacular", A trip to Redbox in the US in a prohibitively long trip for you, and you'd doubtless rack up massive late charges).

I see your point though, movie stars, RIAA Lawyers, and movie moguls can never have too much money, in the same sense they feel that the average person can never have too little.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Why, so you can pay Amazon 5 bucks to watch a movie you can rent for a dollar at Redbox? Would that be because it's convenient, or because it's the, "right thing to do"?

(I understand that I'm speaking in the "colonies northeast's vernacular", A trip to Redbox in the US in a prohibitively long trip for you, and you'd doubtless rack up massive late charges).

I see your point though, movie stars, RIAA Lawyers, and movie moguls can never have too much money, in the same sense they feel that the average person can never have too little.

I said that tongue in cheek because I admitted to pirating a while back.

 

[captaincranky]

I said that tongue in cheek because I admitted to pirating a while back.

Unlike our NSA, I don't keep that data on file. Well, maybe for a few "Special people".....

 

[olibenu]

What does 'sharing one movie torrent' mean?

I'd read it as someone fined for sharing a .torrent file

 

[cliffordcooley]

What does 'sharing one movie torrent' mean?

I'd read it as someone fined for sharing a .torrent file

It means they are the origination of the movie, and the share method is in the form of a torrent.

 

[Guest]

The criminals just don't get it. Punishment is not an exchange of value, it's punishment for a crime. The punishment is suppose to be a painful experience and deterrent to future lapse of good judgment.
Japan has the right approach with mandatory minimum prison sentences for pirates and hackers in addition to high fines. Soon the rest of the world will catch up on digital crime and there will be uniform minimum prison sentences for all digital perps.

 

[captaincranky]

The criminals just don't get it. Punishment is not an exchange of value, it's punishment for a crime. The punishment is suppose to be a painful experience and deterrent to future lapse of good judgment.
Japan has the right approach with mandatory minimum prison sentences for pirates and hackers in addition to high fines. Soon the rest of the world will catch up on digital crime and there will be uniform minimum prison sentences for all digital perps.

I can see mandatory prison sentences for hacking. But, "pirating", not on your life. When you have institutions such as the RIAA, and MPAA relitigating copyright law with every case, there's no sensible reason to burden a country's law enforcement assets having them act as a, free of charge, dedicated mercenary army, or storm trooopers.

If something like the Gestapo ever comes back into power , you should apply for a job with them.. Maybe they'll let you wear the executioner's mask, at least in late night naughty barracks games...

 

[Guest]

The criminals just don't get it. Punishment is not an exchange of value, it's punishment for a crime. The punishment is suppose to be a painful experience and deterrent to future lapse of good judgment. Japan has the right approach with mandatory minimum prison sentences for pirates and hackers in addition to high fines. Soon the rest of the world will catch up on digital crime and there will be uniform minimum prison sentences for all digital perps.

You don't get it, those movies or media are not worth the money paid to see them at all. Those media owners should be the ones punished for pushing such garbage against the people.