Dagens Nyheter has a quite interesting article about the Swedish Department of Justice has received a report from a one man committee where it’s suggested that ISP’s should either close down broadband subscription for an individual or be forced to pay the fine for copyright infraction.

According to an interview with Cecilia Renfors who wrote the document and quoted by Dagens Nyheter, this won’t lead to that Swedish ISP’s are forced to participate in the hunt for broadband customers who downloads music or films ; but if the ISP don’t act up on an indication from the copyright holder, they would then stand responsible and will be taken to court. This would then mean that local Swedish ISP can actually be taken to court on behalf of how their customers use their product? Does this mean that we will have future similar laws for:

• Car industry so that they can be charged if their cars has been used in a bank robbery?
• Telecom industry since their phone lines could be used to fraud or threaten people?

And finally; should a person actually be able to be pre-convicted without taken to court? File sharing itself isn’t illegal as long you share legal material. But there is a high risk that this suggestion would have negative impact on privacy.

Kim Haverblad

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