Sweden doesn’t understand the internet
Posted by Charles | Filed under Politiks
By Sweden I mean the powers that be. Politicians and courts. The latest case to be prosecuted is so ridiculous it would be laughable, if it wasn’t so frightening. A lot has been said about it already in various Swedish blogs and newspapers, so I thought I would spread the word to others not fluent in Swedish. After all, in this globalised world of the internet, links (which lie at the heart of the issue) are global by nature. Several links in this text lead to Swedish resources, as I have been unable to find English language resources covering this scandal (except for The Local).
The case is as follows: Canal+, one of Sweden’s largest rights holders to premium sports events, streams sports on their website. If you know the URL, it seems the stream is publicly accessible. An individual posted links to two ice hockey games on his website, and is now being prosecuted for linking to these games. The argument is that the links themselves made the streams accessible to the public. Anyone with a basic level of understanding of the internet and the technology involved realises the hollow nature of this claim. Most suppliers of premium streaming content have systems ensuring that only subscribers can access the streams. The whole case seems so preposterous that I’m in doubt as to whether media has correctly understood and reported the details of the claim. However, I’m simply relaying the information Swedish media is publishing.
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