Miljöpartiet selling out

I guess anyone who believed in Miljöpartiet's election promises on surveillance is feeling pretty ashamed today. Only 3 days after the elections a representative of the party, Isabelle Lövin manage to vote - brace yourself - in favor of the positively insane Gallo report, a report named after its equally insane (or completely corrupt) creator, Marielle Gallo. Read Isabelle Lövins pathetic excuse here. Notice how she uses a clearly fake petition signed among others by deceased filmmakers, to justify her vote for increased surveillance and oppression.

The report, for those of you unfamiliar with it, states on one hand that we don't know enough about the effects of file sharing (clearly all the independent research done over the last couple of years is irrelevant, as it doesn't support the view of the entertainment business), and on the other hand that this doesn't matter at all and that ISP's should be forced to monitor the users for illegal file sharing activities, and also risk liability should they not take action in a manner acceptable to the entertainment industry. In other words, legislation first, facts second. My oh my, if every industry could order oppressive legislation just like that...

Oh yeah, and the report also states that file sharing may lead to health risks. Really. That's just  how insane it is, and how dumb Isabelle Lövin and the other pathetic bastards voting in favor of this report are.

So, by voting in favor of this report, let's have a look at how this is honoring  Miljöpartiet's election promises, made only 3 days ago:

Att staten inte ska ha möjlighet att registrera och övervaka all internettrafik i Sverige. Right, we'll let the ISP's do the surveillance instead, and threaten them with liability if they don't cooperate.

Skapa en balanserad upphovsrätt och avkriminalisera fildelning för privat bruk.
Umm, yeah, a balanced copyright legislation is exactly what the Gallo report is all about...

Of course, traditional media refuse to pick up on this. Instead they're publishing a story on how 70% of Swedish voters have confidence in the politicians. Yeah, I wonder why.

Another police officer on Hollywood's payroll?

We all know the story about Jim Keyzer, who was on Hollywood's payroll while investigating The Pirate Bay.

Now entering the stage: The anti-piracy boss of the Swedish police, Paul Pintér, of course with affiliations to the entertainment industry. Anything else would be considered weird in this country, I guess. Congratulations, Paul, seems you're doing a great job on behalf of your employer. Whoever that is.

Corrupt cop comeback

The infamous corrupt cop Jim Keyzer, bought and later employed by the entertainment mafia is back in business, this time looking for employees to battle computer crimes. You know, dangerous stuff like 14 year old kids sharing their music with other 14 year old kids. How this buffoon can still be employed by the police is beyond me, and it just contributes to the extremely bad image this institution is very rightfully struggling with at the moment.

Anyway, Keyzer is looking for people who can identify with the "police values", presumably taking bribes from large corporations. So if you feel like taking bribes and hunting down kids, go for it.


Thanks to futuriteter and Full Mental Straightjacket for the link.

The Swedish police: A complete embarassment

Well, it's official, not only are single policemen bought by the entertainment mafia, the entire Swedish police system seems to become a division of EMI/Universal/Sony/Warner, doing their dirty work extorting and bullying simple file-sharers in an organized way instead of prioritizing crimes that actually involve victims. Crimes that actually matter.

As a first step, nine police officers will be taken out of meaningful duty (and by meaningful I certainly don't mean the kind of appalling abuse of power displayed by these two pitiful clowns) and enrolled in the entertainment mafia division of the police, where they will knock down doors, seize computer equipment and threaten youngsters who are simply sharing their music or movies with friends or others.

In other words, it's some sort of reverse Ipred. In addition to outsourcing police work to private companies with financial interest in the work, the private companies are now also getting police staff working for them. And the police's excuse for this is probably the most pathetic thing I've heard:

Brott mot immaterialrätten är enligt Polismyndigheten ofta gränsöverskridande och beräknas omsätta stora belopp. Det nationella samarbetet är ett sätt att komma åt problemet.

Right. Non-commercial file-sharing generates a lot of profit.

This is a complete and utter disgrace for the Swedish police.

Original photo: Kike@

Plotting new evil

The "axis of evil" are gathered in the White House and plotting new evil in collaboration with the US government. What kind of insanity can we expect as an outcome of this meeting? More censorship? More oppressive legislation? More "guilty until proven innocent"?

Among those expected are Sony's Michael Lynton, Warner Bros.' Barry Meyer, Viacom's Philippe Dauman, NBC Universal's Jeffrey Zucker, Warner Music Group's Edgar Bronfman, Harper Collins CEO Brian Murray, Universal Music Group's Zachary Horowitz, the MPAA's Dan Glickman, the RIAA's Mitch Bainwol, IATSE's international president Matthew Leob, AFTRA'S Kim Roberts Hedgepeth, DGA president Taylor Hackford, DGA exec director Jay Roth and SAG's David White.

Yup, the whole "family" is here, ready to take on new acts of extortion, threats, bullying and corruption. In more civilized countries these bullies are actually convicted for their crime instead of given a carte blanche by the government to do whatever they want. Well, I guess if they refuse to give the "family" this carte blanche at this point they'll each receive a friendly reminder in the middle of the night, consisting of a severed horse head or something.

And why does it come as no surprise that there's no-one from the consumer and human rights side present at this meeting? Goddamn criminals the lot of them.

Public enemy number 1

Enemy of the Internet and the free world, Monique Wadsted, is taking the absurd rounds in the Pirate Bay farce one step further. She's once again used her comradeship with some rotten apples at Stockholm tingsrätt in order to get what is arguably one of the most bizarre court rulings I've ever heard of here in Sweden:

Nu tvingar Stockholms tingsrätt Pirate Bay att stänga ner. De har vänt sig mot personerna bakom sajten och har bestämt att de ska betala totalt 1 miljon kronor i böter om de fortsätter driva sajten.

Mind you it has not yet been established whether The Pirate Bay is illegal or not, and there is no proof that these two gentlemen are actually involved in the website anymore. I guess if I had a friend in that corrupt institution called Stockholm tingsrätt (or a lot of money to bribe one to be my friend), I could accuse Svenska Dagbladet's website of being illegal, and force them to shut down way before the case had actually been settled. Also, I could just point out a random person who I believed was responsible for running Svenska Dagbladet's site and make this person legally responsible for shutting the site down or pay the consequences. For instance, this person could be my nosy neighbor that I dislike. He'll never know what hit him.

Reminds me a lot of The Trial.
Mrs. Wadsted herself is obviously happy as a clam, as she has once more demonstrated the absolute power of the entertainment industry over the court of law, and the complete and utter contempt of basic human rights that this industry stands for. Money über alles.

– I somras fick vi ett förbud mot Black Internet och nu har vi fått ett förbud mot Fredrik Neij och Gottfrid Svartholm säger Monique Wadsted, som företräder Hollywoodbolagen juridiskt i rättegången om The Pirate Bay.

You're corrupt. You're incometent. Congratulations, you've won the jackpot.

You're corrupt and you're completely incompetent. That would normally be a good reason for an employer to give you a dishonorable discharge, and even report you to the police.

Well, not when you've managed to kiss ass far enough up in the political system. Your reward for doing a completely worthless job and making a laughing stock of yourself and your department is a new job, in this case investigating the sex ethics of the various government offices. What an important piece of work that is. And of course the ridiculously high paycheck remains the same.

Way to waste taxpayer's money!

Democratic (Banana-)Republic of Sweden

The chance of the guys behind Pirate Bay ever getting a fair trial in the "Democratic (Banana-)Rebublic of Sweden" look slimmer than ever. As if a corrupt police investigator and a legally incompetent judge wasn't enough in the first trial, two of the judges in the upcoming trial, Kristina Boutz and Ulrika Ihrfelt, are involved in entertainment industry lobbying organizations. Which is perfectly fine by Svea hovrätt, even though they contradict themselves quite a bit:

Samtidigt konstaterar dock rätten att SFIR, som Kristina Boutz är medlem i, ser efter rättighetshavares intressen och rättigheter.

Trots det har det "inte framkommit några konkreta omständigheter som tyder på att SFIR har ett särskilt intresse av utgången i just detta mål eller att SFIR engagerat sig i de konkreta frågor som ska prövas i målet"

I guess you'd have to be on the entertainment mafia payroll to get the reasoning. One of the defendants, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, sums it all up pretty well:

"Men det var ju såklart inte oväntat, det verkar finnas en lag §13.3.7 som säger att "i tillfälle pirate bay anmäler för jäv, så stämmer inte detta. Jäv får enbart utdelas i tillfälle målsägande sidan så bestämt"

By default any claim by the defendants is completely ignored by Svea hovrätt, and everything put forward by the claimants is instantly accepted - no questions asked. It's pretty obvious who's calling the shots, to say the least, and I don't really see the point in hosting another mock trial wasting a lot of tax money when we'll just get a default ruling for the claimants anyway. I have to say I'm completely fascinated by the fact that this miscarriage of justice is so blatantly being carried out here in Sweden. I mean, had it been Congo or Iran or something, but Sweden?

Everything counts in large amounts

Corrupt, greedy politicians at their best. "Everything counts" by Depeche Mode seems to be a fitting soundtrack.

Stockholm tingsrätt dismantling the judicial system

The scandals surrounding the corrupt bastards over at Stockholms tingsrätt continue...

Read Peter Sundes blogpost here, and Piratpartiets press release here.

It seems if you ever end up in Stockholm tingsrätt, unless you've got the mafiosos at Danowsky & Partners representing you, you know you're screwed no matter how good your case is. Way to go completely destroying the public's faith in the judicial system.

A lesson in irony

Today's lesson in irony:

The ISP Black Internet pulls the plug on The Pirate Bay, making it inaccessible for Internet users.

The Internet users pull the plug on Black Internet.

Personally I don't see how one is worse than the other. Both these acts of sabotage harm a lot of innocent people, cost a lot of money and threaten the infrastructure of the Internet. Of course the ones who should really have their plugs pulled - big time - are the mafiosos of the entertainment industry and the ever-so-corrupt and incompetent Stockholm tingsrätt.

I never seem to repeat this often enough: Stop feeding this monster. Let it crawl under a rock and die for the benefit of the entire free world.

Insulting the tax payers

Stockholms Stad, the city of Stockholm, is suddenly turning into a 100% Microsoft shop, stacking up on tons of unnecessary, expensive and proprietary software at the taxpayer's expense.

Whatever happened to the report that estimated an upgrade from Microsoft Office 2003 to Microsoft Office 2007 would cost between 3000-3800 SEK per user (this is an upgrade, mind you!!!), as opposed to a migration to OpenOffice that would cost a mere 795 SEK per user? I'm wondering which decision maker was paid off by Microsoft to make a U-turn like that, and just turn down open standards, platform independence and lower costs?

Not to mention the fact that Stockholms Stad's decision is the exact oposite of the government's intentions:

E-delegationen ska i sitt arbete sträva efter att den offentliga förvaltningens e-tjänster i så stor utsträckning som möjligt ska bygga på öppna standarder, använda sig av programvara som bygger på öppen källkod samt sträva efter lösningar som stegvis frigör förvaltningen från beroendet av enskilda plattformar och lösningar.

That's a laugh.