Sweden detains Pirate Bay founder in oppressive conditions without charges

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/01/wikileaks-sweden-pirate-bay


Pirate Bay co- founders Gottfrid Svartholm Warg (left) and Peter Sunde. Photograph: Bertil Ericson/AFP/Getty Images

My very first week writing regularly at the Guardian generated intense conflict with numerous members of the British media because that happened to be the week when Ecuador granted asylum to Julian Assange (a decision I defended), and - for reasons that warrant sustained study by several academic fields of discipline - very few people generate intense contempt among the British commentariat like Assange does. One of the prime arguments I have always made about the Assange asylum case is that his particular fear of being extradited to Sweden is grounded in that country's very unusual and quite oppressive pre-trial detention powers: ones that permit the state to act with an extreme degree of secrecy and which can even prohibit the accused from any communication with the outside world.

That is what has always led Assange to fear going to Sweden: that those detention procedures could be used to transfer him to the US without any public scrutiny (only the most willfully irrational, given evidence like this, would deny that this is a real threat). And that is the argument on behalf of Assange that has produced the greatest amount of anger: in part because some self-loving westerners find the suggestion inconceivable and offensive that a nice western nation (as opposed to some Muslim or Latin American country) could possibly be oppressive in any real way.

But now we have a case that confirms exactly those claims about Sweden's justice system, and since it has nothing to do with the WikiLeaks founder, one hopes these issues can be viewed more rationally. Gottfrid Svartholm is the founder of the file-sharing Pirate Bay website who has been prosecuted by the Swedish government for enabling copyright infringements. At the behest of Sweden, he was recently arrested in Cambodia and then deported to Stockholm, where he has now also been accused (though not charged) with participating in the hacking of a Swedish company.

[riderinthestorm]

1. "Only the most willfully irrational... deny this is a real threat".

[MNBrewer]

3. I have my eye out for one in particular

and they'll show up, because the OP mentions Assange.

[qb]

2. Another indication that Sweden's government,like ours, is unduly influenced by corporations.

[Scootaloo]

5. That beard is a crime against humanity.

That'll be my only statement on the subject, as I eat my popcorn and watch the tumbleweeds roll by.

[freshwest]

6. I loved their epic replies to various legal threats over the years:

Last edited Mon Oct 1, 2012, 12:29 PM - Edit history (3)

response to dreamworks:

It is the opinion of us and our lawyers that you are ...morons, and that you should please go sodomize yourself with retractable batons ...Go fuck yourself.

response to EA:

Hello and thank you for contacting us. We have shut down the website in question. Oh wait, just kidding. We haven't, since the site in question is fully legal. Unlike certain other countries, such as the one you're in, we have sane copyright laws here. But we also have polar bears roaming the streets and attacking people .

response to ADV films:

Hello, my dear sir(s)!We all like Evangelion a lot. This, however, does not mean that we like YOU... Sincerely/Judas, on the behalf of The Pirate Bay

response to White Stripes / WEB SHERIFF:

Now that's what I call a miserable attempt at a cliff-hanger. Let me guess, you failed your literature classes? Just like you failed law school and the police academy, and became MR WEB SHERIFF. John, is that you?

http://nion.modprobe.de/blog/archives/615-Piratebay-legal-threats-best-of.html

Here's the saga on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirate_Bay#Legal_issues

All attempts to get the original site are timing out so they may be finally shut down at last. The article says they were sentenced to a year in Sweden, but had appeals and never surrendered.

I wondered if the free exchange of information online would be realized, not as property, but as the fleeting sparks of imagination they appear to be. Many forget that the infrastructure of the world wide web is owned by private interests.

Despite cloud hosting and wireless, which seem to be a communication grid where we share thoughts at the speed of telepathy, there is hardware behind it all and we pay to play in a field not of our making, nor do we own it.

I never used their service, despite claims it was the 'wave of the future.' I was amazed at how long they lasted and their braggadocio and wondered if the big money would have to give in at last to the desires of the many to use this medium as freely as speech. That speculation appears to be over with now.

[tama]

7. That case has lot to do with Wikileaks founder

Assange was in Sweden as guest of Pirate party and planned to move Wikileaks to their servers, which hosted also Pirate Bay. And the prosecution side of Assange case - up to current Justice minister - has cooperated with US against Pirate party and Pirate Bay.

Swedish Pirate Party won a landslide and got many representatives in EU parliament, it's popularity has grown hugely also in Germany. Pirate party is political expression of ideology behind WIPO-agreement and copyright policies, ideology of capitalistic theft and restriction of freedom of information, and as such huge threat against capitalist greed.

[riderinthestorm]

8. Well you wouldn't know it by the crickets chirping on this thread....

pm kick

[freshwest]

10. Maybe the Swedish ruling party would lose its place in parliament... That would be something.

Pirate Bay may have been 'asking for it' according to some, but the infringement on 'free speech' has gone too far. Sure, we don't own the hardware.

But we pay enough and ought to be valued as share holders in the internet world. When one looks at it in it in a practical we do invest a lot in online services, from the purchase of computers, programs, electricity, modems, internet service and other devices. Plus fees time, etc. Our money is as good a theirs, they set up a system to have us pay them and we have done and made them rich.

The craziest restriction is the copyright of things that are common practice. It's illegal to sing the 'Happy Birthday' song at a child's birthday now, because it was copyrighted. It should have been public domain, but many things are being taken away that have outlived their freshness date. Some current event depictions, are being restricted, and they only have value for a day or two. So hold that tight, anal retentives, until it's worth nothing?

A friend made a video of his son for friends on youtube. In the background, if you listened hard enough, you could hear the radio playing, but it wasn't part of the video, just one of the sounds. He didn't even know what the name of the song or the band playing it. It was taken down for 'copyright infringement.' What's next, copyright a recording of a person breathing and censor the sound of us breathing, too?

[tama]

14. Yeah, I used to be pro left-copy, but now

[Go Vols]

9. .

[struggle4progress]

11. Pirate Bay founder's detention extended

Svartholm Warg being held for two more weeks as prosecutor prepares case
01 Oct 2012

... This week Henrik Olin, the public prosecutor dealing with the case, asked the court to extend Svartholm Warg's detention.

"The court decided to prolong the detention for another two-week period," Olin said last Friday on leaving the courtroom.

"The investigation is ongoing," he said, referring to the theft of sensitive tax records for people with protected identities from a government IT contractor, Logica.

"He is suspected of this breach of data security. The court ruled that there is a risk he could affect the evidence in the investigation, and that there is a risk he could be committing crimes again," he said ...

http://www.techcentral.ie/19988/pirate-bay-founders-detention-extended

[struggle4progress]

12. Pirate Bay cofounder detained pending Swedish tax hack investigation

By Loek Essers, IDG-News-Service:Amsterdam-Bureau
Sep 14, 2012 6:30 AM


Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, cofounder of the Pirate Bay, has been detained by a Stockholm district court pending an investigation into his involvement into the hacking of Logica, a Swedish IT firm that provides tax services to the Swedish government, the public prosecutor said on Friday.

Svartholm Warg, who was a fugitive from a Swedish jail sentence after being convicted for copyright violations related to his work with Pirate Bay, was arrested in Cambodia late last month at the request of Swedish authorities and deported to Sweden on Tuesday. Once there, he was arrested for his alleged involvement in the Logica hack, said public prosecutor Henry Olin. The court decided to detain Svartholm Warg for two weeks, and it is possible that his detention will be prolonged when the two weeks are over, he added.

Logica's security was breached earlier this year when hackers stole the personal information of thousands of Swedes, including social security numbers and addresses, Olin said ...

As part of Friday's decision, the Pirate Bay co-founder will not be allowed to communicate with the outside world without the prosecutor's consent, other than contacting his lawyer. The intent is to prevent him from contacting other suspects or witnesses so that the prosecution can carry out an effective investigation, Olin said ...

http://www.pcworld.com/article/262314/pirate_bay_cofounder_detained_pending_swedish_tax_hack_investigation.html

[struggle4progress]

13. Pirate Bay co-founder named in probe into Logica, tax office hacks

Warg hauled back to Sweden for copyright cooler stint
By Kelly Fiveash, Networks Correspondent
Posted in Security, 11th September 2012 16:02 GMT

Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, a co-founder of download haven The Pirate Bay, is back in Sweden - and now faces allegations of playing a role in an attack on the country's taxmen and IT consultancy biz Logica.

Warg was holed up in Cambodia when he was arrested on an international warrant obtained by Swedish officials and flown home after he failed to return to Sweden to start a one-year prison term. He was sentenced in April 2009 for being an accessory to breaching copyright laws.

It has now emerged, however, that Warg - who didn't appear at a September 2010 appeal hearing against his conviction due to apparent ill health - was also deported from Cambodia after being deemed a possible suspect in the hacking of websites in Sweden ...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/11/pirate_bay_co_founder_gottfrid_swartholm_warg_faces_hacking_allegations/

[struggle4progress]

15. When we last heard from dear Warg, he was planning to appeal his one-year sentence for

copyright infringement, on grounds of ill-health

So let's catch up on that story now!

Warg didn't show up for that hearing, deciding instead that his health required an immediate trip to Cambodia. Everyone hopes, of course, that the healthful vibrations of Cambodia's traditional air were beneficial for him. However, the Swedish authorities were not impressed by Warg's spiritual journey, nor by the fact that he seems to have become a new man, leaving the now-exhausted fields of copyright infringement for a career in the up-and-coming world of tax-record hacking. And so, after sharing a delightful smörgåsbord of legalese with Sweden, Cambodia sent Warg back home

What does the future hold?

We might guess that Warg's health-based appeal of his copyright infringement sentence may have lost some credibility, after his health-restoring visit to Cambodia. We might also guess that libertarian Glenn Greenwald will continue to make his usual loud but not-very-well-researched and therefore not-very-credible noises, in this case focusing on Warg's detention while the hacking investigation proceeds

[Go Vols]

16. Pirate Bay

is back up.It was only down for 2 days.