(SNN) Sweden, the name of the country invokes images of wine, chocolate, waffles and hash. But a new delicacy is being served up in the land of the Fjords, illegal file sharing.

He has been caught with the film, “Hipp Hipp Hora” on his computer.

The 27 year old man comes from Vasteras, about 35 miles north of Stockholm, and if that isn’t bad enough, he has been caught with the film, “Hipp Hipp Hora” on his computer. This is a story we have heard time and again. A 13 year old has too much to drink at a party and falls asleep. Immature classmates take compromising photos of her being drunk and knocked out and hands them out at school. She is labeled promiscuous and her two best friends avoid her. She must learn to fight back and regain the confidence her dad had instilled in her before she can put things right.

NewsBlog 5000 researchers found it difficult to wade through the law surrounding this case.

This case will be the first time that Sweden’s complex copy protection laws have ever been tried in court. Our NewsBlog 5000 researchers found it difficult to wade through the law surrounding this case. While Sweden’s “The Local” says that it is illegal to upload and legal to download, Reuters says that it is illegal to download but legal to upload. The Local adds this statement from John Linder of the Center Party. “It is, for example, a breach of copyright laws to copy a music book, but it is not illegal to receive or use the copied book,” said the party’s legal affairs spokesman, Johan Linander. “It should be no more complicated than that in the digital arena,” he added. But we can accurately say that there is some kind of law, it seems to affect files on computers and some guy may or may not have broken that law over a kind of lame movie.

Uppsala prosecutor Katrin Rudstrom says that this case will have vital implications for the future. Rudstrom’s grasp on the intricacies of the case just goes to show the Swedish are far beyond the level sophistication than our research suggested. In fact, in her entire time talking to the press, she refused to throw utensils and yell, “Bork Bork Bork”.

The other interesting distinction in this case is that the Vasteras man would be prosecuted criminally, whereas, in the United States, such cases are prosecuted in a civil court. So in Sweden a file sharer could receive a suspended sentence and some community service. While in the U.S. file sharers are sued for crippling amounts of money, which ironically takes away their power to purchase music and movies in the future.

posted by NewsBlog 5000  # Friday, March 25, 2005