Swedish Man Convicted for Illegal-File Sharing

31yo at the center of Sweden’s largest file-sharing case is given a suspended sentence and ordered to pay the equivalent of 40 days' wages, the Swedish news agency TT reported.

Yesterday 31yo Swede Andreas Karlsson was convicted in that country’s biggest file-sharing case to date. Linkoping District Court found him guilty of "making available" some 4,500 music files and more than 30 films available using Direct Connect type file-sharing software like KaZaA or Limewire.

He received a suspended prison sentence, a fine of around 54670 kronor ($10,000 USD), the equivalent of 40 days wages, and was also ordered to pay over $7,000 in court costs. Interestingly enough, the court refused to send the man to prison, arguing that the prevention of copyright infringement is “a task for the government” and not for the private business concerns whom initiated the case against him.

The man was apparently convicted for using a Direct Connect program so the ruling really won't much to the magority of file-sharers who have long ago switched to BitTorrent or Usenet.

As many of you are already aware, Direct Connect programs like KaZaA or Limewire use a “shared folder” which makes any content you place in available for others to download. It's this act of "making available" that the court has equated with the illegal distribution of copyrighted material and for which he has been convicted.

It's the reason why more and more people are using BitTorrent because users aren't making copyrighted works available per se, but rather portions of them as part of a BitTorrent swarm. It'd be pretty tough to indict somebody for distributing 10% of a movie.

The ruling also contradicts recent rulings here in the US, a suprising feat if one considers our country's penchant for kowtowing to the entertainment industry. For in Atlantic v. Howell, federal judge Neil V. Wake in Phoenix ruled that simply placing music in KaZaA's "shared folder" does not in itself constitute copyright infringement, that actual unauthorized distribution must be proven.