The Data Retention Directive lie

The Swedish politicians have tried to convince the public that the implementation of the Data Retention Directive (DRD), the massive surveillance scheme that would make the DDR blush, is aimed at fighting organized crime, terrorism and such.

Well, the cat's finally out of the bag: Infamous Minister of Justice Beatrice Ask wants the police to be given access to any surveillance data (the positioning of your cell phone, your e-mails, text messages, calls...) on suspicions even of petty crimes that only warrant a fine. That means that the police could use the DRD surveillance machine to track you down and prosecute you for urinating in a public place, littering, or probably more realistically: For illegally downloading music or movies on the Internet.

Is this really the society we want? Don't you wish you didn't vote for a totalitarian government in this year's elections?

Other thoughts on the subject: Sysadminbloggen, opassande, Henrik Alexandersson, Full Mental Straightjacket.

Picture: mandiberg

Enforcing hands-free for car phone use is useless

Sweden is the only European country where using a hand-held cell phone while driving isn't illegal. All other countries require hands-free equipment. Now the lobby organization Motormännen demans similar legislation in Sweden. The questions is, why?

According to studies the distraction of talking on the phone is what causes undesirable behavior in traffic, not whether or not you're holding the phone in your hand. There are no facts to support banning the use of hand-held phones in favor of hands-free equipment.

Motormännen point out that between 10-20 people die or are severely injured in car accidents every year because of phone use, both talking and texting. First of all, between 10 and 20? The difference between those number is way to high to tell anything, really. Second, there is a huge difference between talking on the phone while keeping your eyes on the road, and writing a text message. Combining these two activities in the statistics is just plain wrong.

Let me point you guys to this report (PDF) prepared for the European Commission in June 2009:

Hands-free versus hand-held?
Studies indicate that the use of hands-free phones causes as much
important driver distraction as the use of hand-held phones. Some studies show that in-car telephone
conversations while driving can impair drivers more than listening to the radio or talking to passengers.
An epidemiological study of crash involvement found that mobile phone use was associated with a greater
likelihood of crash than passenger carriage and increasing numbers of passengers

and

Effects of texting?
Many young drivers admit to the largely illegal activity of texting while driving. Text
messaging has a detrimental effect on safety-critical driving tasks such as lane-keeping, hazard detection
and the detection and appropriate response to traffic signs.

There we are. So stop with the bullshit and focus on the facts. If you want to ban phone conversations in cars then by all means do so, but stop pretending that everything will be fine if we just use hands-free equipment. In all fairness, Sweden appears to be the only country in Europe that hasn't based a law on pure propaganda. That's probably a first, and they deserve credit for that.

The Americans are officially crazy

It's pathetic enough that the American movie industry feels the need to make Hollywood versions of the Millenium trilogy (because clearly they believe the Americans are unable to watch a European movie w/subtitles...). But this really blew me away:

Dessutom skriver tidningen nu att det finns planer på att alla skådespelare i filmen ska bryta på svenska.

Apparently the director wants the actors to talk with a Swedish accent througout the movie? I guess the American version of the movie will be set in Sweden as well, just to make it completely and utterly corny. Well, if they're looking to make a comedy out of it, they seem to be on the right track.

Abusing copyright

Well I guess it's pretty obvious now why Swedish politicians are so reluctant to change today's destructive copyright legislation. The Christian Democratic party, Kristdemokraterna, for instance, are abusing the copyright legislation by registering catchphrases and slogans such as "Verklighetens folk", "the real people".

Remind me again, why the f*ck should anybody at all be able to copyright a phrase, a sentence, a collection of words that are used in everyday speech?

Clearly a revision of the copyright legislation is desperately needed. Unfortunately we can't rely on the traditional political parties to take any action as they're too busy taking advantage of it.

Poor British bastards

Apparently the Brits will be getting "their own Reinfeldt" according to Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt himself.

What have those poor bastards done to deserve even more surveillance and oppression?

Gumball - what's the fuss about?

The infamous Gumball 3000 race has finally (?) reached Swedish soil. And I have to admit I was a bit disappointed when I read about it in Swedish newspapers SvD and DN: The maximum speed recorded through Skåne was 148 km/h, merely 38 km/h over the speed limit, on what I presume were pristine motorways with minimal risk of incidents. Not really what you'd expect from 300 supercars piloted by a bunch of crazy millionaires, and certainly nothing to get worked up about, like Jan Sanberg from NTF does:

– Det är ju helt befängt, bra att polisen har koll på dem. Men man kan ju undra vad det är för personer som utsätter andra bilförare för den här sortens risker, säger han till SvD.se. 

Come on. As if your average Volvo V70 doesn't do the same speed down E6... Give the millionaires a break.

Photo: tonylanciabeta

What's worse - ignorance or incompetence?

I don't know what to say. Apparently Sweden is represented by a deaf, dumb and blind guy in the much criticized Acta talks. According to this moron, Stefan Johansson from the Department of Justice (!!!), there's nothing peculiar about the Acta agreement. They're not out to fight non-commercial file-sharing or any other small scale copyright infringements. We can all rest peacefully knowing that our personal integrity and civil liberties will be well taken care of.

– Ja, så är det, dokumentet tar sikte på mer omfattande intrång. Acta tar inte specifikt sikte på fildelning utan på fysiska produkter.

Yeah, right. Either Mr. Johansson has been spending most of his time sleeping during these talks, or he's just hopelessly incompetent. I don't know what is worse. Actabloggen has made a preliminary summary of the recently released documents, and they're not exactly painting a nice picture:

• 
  
  Customs officials will have the right to search through your luggage for any kind of pirated goods, including searching through your electronic devices looking for pirated content.
• 
  
  The "mere conduit" principle will cease to exist, and the ISP's will be held liable for what their users do on the web. In order to avoid liability they will be forced to filter web-pages pointed out by the entertainment mafia to contain infringing material, and they will be forced to terminate user accounts based on allegations from the very same mafia, effectively introducing not only a 3 strikes, but a 1 strike regime!
• 
  
  The most grotesque part is that all these measures are effectively bypassing the code of law. There's no right to have one's case tried by the court of law, there's no presumption of being innocent until proven guilty, it's basically the entertainment mafia playing judge and jury.

I'm guessing we'll see a lot more evil appearing as the Acta agreement is dissected by the community.

Links:
- ArsTechnica has a comprehensive analysis of the entire process behind Acta.
- IDG.se has a few words (in Swedish), although not very comprehensive at all.
- Europaportalen.se (also in Swedish) lets a couple of critical voices be heard.
- Christian Engström, Pirate Party politician and member of the EU parliament, gives his view on the 3 strikes threat.

Photo: chaouki

"Good job, China!"

Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt met with Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping, and discussed among other things the Chinese censorship of the Internet. Might we assume that the conversation went something like this:

Fredrik: Hey Xi, great job you're doing on that Internet censorship.
Xi: Why, thank you.
Fredrik: We're actually working on a similar project ourselves, but being a democracy we're don't really have a long history in restricting the public's opportunity to share thoughts and information. Perhaps you could share some experiences with us? We would like to have it in place by 2012.
Xi: Sure, no worries, with your technology and eagerness to restrict the public's access to information you consider "inappropriate" this could be up and running in no time.
Fredrik: Cool.

Go get some new clothes. And a life.

"Stockholm's finest", the two moronic police officers who abused Jesper Nilsson in the subway last week, have finally become properly identified - names and pictures. Good, now we know who to avoid. We also know that they're all too happy to blatantly lie in order to punish troublesome citizens. Unfortunately this time they were caught on tape, and their nonsense lies are easily revealed.

A quick google search also revealed that one of these police officers, Carl Larsson, was featured on Swedish television a little while back. While I have no reason to believe anything coming from his mouth at this point, I did find it funny that he's wearing the exact same clothes as he did when abusing Nilsson in the subway. Way to go getting into that hobo character, Larsson.



Get a life and a set of new clothes, please.

More Swedish police embarrassments

Two morons who also happen to be police officers (yes, the standard of these guys seems to be declining by the day, what are the requirements to become one of these trained monkeys anyway?) bully and threaten a defenseless civilian taking a photo of them.

The victim publishes the photo and the story of the abuse on his blog.

These two apes, Martin Bergström and Carl Larsson, then have the nerve to press charges against him.

- Man får fotografera, men det finns gränser för hur man fotograferar och vad man använder bilderna till. Det kan bli brottsligt i slutändan, att det blir ett ofredande av det, säger BT Olsson.

I see, so documenting a case of police abuse of power is a crime, but actually performing the abuse of power is perfectly fine? I'm amazed. Living in Sweden for only 4 years has completely erased my confidence in the police. Seriously. I have yet to read anything positive about this pitiful bunch of rejects. Instead the newspapers are full of stories on abusive, arrogant, ignorant and just plain stupid policemen wasting their time and taxpayer's money doing one ridiculous thing after the other, all in a massive effort to lose the public's trust.

The empire strikes back

Yes, the evil empire, in conspiracy with the Swedish police, has once again struck against a bunch of regular Joes, knocking down their doors, invading their privacy and seizing their computer equipment, which they will probably never see again. Why? Apparently because they were aiding in committing copyright infringement. The exact same and highly questionable "crime" the Pirate Bay guys were charged with: Providing the infrastructure that enables people to commit copyright infringement. They're not even suspected of committing the actual copyright infringement, a petty crime in itself.

One can't help but wonder when the 13% of all Swedes with an unsecured wireless router will be targeted by this utterly despicable mafia organization. If providing bandwidth through an insecure wireless connection isn't providing the infrastructure that enables people to commit copyright infringement, I don't know what is...

This is nothing but an embarrassment to the Swedish police conspiring with the criminals at Ifpi, and another dark day for the Internet freedom in Sweden. Shame on you.

The Berlin Wall - coming to a city near you

Apparently Gothenburg motorists are next in line to be subdued by the Berlin Wall of traffic, the road tolls. This abomination is striking arbitrary and with no regard to people's personal economy, and is providing yet another means of surveillance for the government. All in the name of making money. Tons of money.

I've said it again, and I'll gladly repeat it: Have a look at what's in store for you Swedes now that the pandora's box has been opened with the "congestion charges" in Stockholm.


Yes, this is a map of road tolls in Norway, with tons more tolls being built as we speak. And if you're interested in why road tolls are the work of the devil, read my post about it here.

Why road tolls are the work of the devil

I've already written about how the Swedish politicians are increasingly adopting the terrible Norwegian way of financing basal infrastructure, where billions of kronor are wasted every single year in administration of toll roads and interest on loans.

It seems Socialdemokraterna are prepared to take this even a step further, because obviously increased income and housing taxes and a new net wealth tax that they've already promised isn't enough:

Kongressen fattade på torsdagen beslut om att i högre grad än i dag låta
bilisterna själva betala nya infrastruktursatsningar med så kallade brukar- och
trängselavgifter.

We need more road tolls, and we need to finance the roads in the worst possible way, both from a social point of view and from an economical point of view. If you're still wondering why this is such a bad idea, let me explain:

Socially
Road tolls are anti-social in nature, as they are a flat-rate tax on transportation that will hit low-income citizens unreasonably hard in comparison to the wealthier citizens. Would any social democratic politician dare to suggest a flat income tax of 100.000 SEK a year, no matter how much you actually make? Probably not.

Furthermore the tax hits you not based on income or wealth but solely based on where you live in relation to your job, the kindergarten, shops and public services.

I have to say I'm particularly shocked that a party claiming to be socialist is proposing something like this.

Economically
Now this, on the other hand, isn't really the socialist democratic party's strongest skills, but still... Collecting road tolls costs a lot of money. In 2008 the road tolls in Stockholm cost 380 million SEK, approximately 50% of the total income. In Norway, a country where they have made the collection of road tolls into an artform, 15,5 billion NOK out of 46 billion NOK that has been collected in road tolls during 1990-2007 was spent on administration and interest on loans. That's more or less 30% of tax payers money wasted on nothing. In one particular example the motorists are forced to pay 3,79 billion NOK in road tolls on a road that only costs 3,5 billion NOK to build...

There is absolutely no good reason to remove the building of new roads from the national budget and increase the costs of these dramatically by turning them into toll roads.

Sweden turning into Norway

The introduction of the road tolls in Stockholm in 2006 sure opened pandoras box. Or the gates to hell, depending on you point of view. We've already seen the city of Gothenburg eager to plague their motorists with a similar toll ring system. Tolls will be collected on E4 near Sundsvall. Road toll plans have popped up regarding the new Skurubron in Värmdö and now even more road tolls are planned on E4, this time outside Örnsköldsvik.

All this because the 70 billion kronor that Swedish motorists annually pay in various car-related taxes apparently isn't enough to pay for a bit of road here and there...

I'm sad to say this country is turning into Norway fast. And no, I'm not talking about the oil, if only it were that well. I'm talking about punishing the motorists in every way possible. You guys who have ever had the "pleasure" of going to Norway by car know what I'm talking about (and you probably think twice before going back). And for the rest of you, have a good look at what's in store for you:


Looks nice, doesn't it? Norwegian motorists will pay almost 6 billion NOK in road tolls this year, half of it wasted on administration costs. We might as well just give Vägverket our credit card and let them charge us at will, because this toll road hell is exactly what awaits us if the current politicians get to decide. Bloody leaches.

Life behind the iron curtain

I woke up today and realized I'm living in DDR. Who would have thought, on that fateful day in 1989, that the fall of the Berlin wall, and the fall of the iron curtain, would in fact not export democracy and freedom to the east, but rather oppression and surveillance to the west? Who could have imagined that in Sweden in 2009 one would have to meet in secret places, talk quietly and constantly look over one's shoulder in order to stay out of the prying eyes and ears of the "Ministerium für Staatssicherheit"?

I sure as hell didn't.

Socialists don't work

Only 43% of socialist voters in Sweden feel the current politics are to their advantage, which leads me to the conclusion that most socialist voters don't like to work, they prefer to sit on their ass and cash in that social security check every month.

Of course it's upsetting for them to see people who actually make their own money getting to keep a bit more of their paycheck, while their own welfare benefits are shrinking and they are increasingly forced to get out into that cold, estranged world of work.

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?

All work and no fun

Apparently the average monthly salary in Norway is 41.000 kronor, as opposed to the Swedish average of 27.100 kronor. And this figure is supposed to tempt Swedes into moving. First of all, I'm assuming the Norwegian numbers have been converted into Swedish kronor, which means the average salary in NOK is 32.800, far from as impressive.

Second, you're gonna need every little bit of those extra kronor living in Norway, where a car costs as much as a house, having a beer at a restaurant will set you back about 500 kronor, and a big old steak costs more or less an arm and a leg.

Sure, you can make a few more bucks working in Norway, but unless you're planning on living in a box and eating out of a dumpster that money will disappear before you can say "kjempemorsomt".

Everything counts in large amounts

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

The wind of change

Traditionally, Swedes love surveillance, they love the thought of a "big brother" watching them and slapping them on their wrists when they do something bad. This has, of course, led to the government increasing their surveillance of ordinary people - just because they can. Thank God this mentality seems to be changing now. The oppression has increased severely during the last couple of years and culminated with the FRA law, which made people think twice about the amount of control a government should have over its citizens in a so-called democracy. The frustration has sparked much needed initiatives such as Piratpartiet.