markxq (September 30, 2008 at 2:22 pm)

The Berne Convention is clear. All countries in the EU have signed it. And country after country has ruled BitTorrents illegal. What you claim is that most EU countries do not recognize property rights and think it is OK to steal someone else's property. I don't think Europe is that backward.

bwpow (September 30, 2008 at 2:06 pm)

I don't want to continue this discussion because now it's just about what you think and how you interpret intellectual property rights against what I think and how I internet those rights.And just to let you know, almost all EU countries have copyright law similar to ours and only England, Germany and France have law similar to yours DMCA. Also, continental legal system is very different from your anglo saxon legal system. Our (EU) nonacceptance of software patents is the best example.

markxq (September 30, 2008 at 1:56 pm)

The Swedish gov't believes they broke Swedish laws. A guy in Slovakia thinks they didn't. There is no question that they are in violation of the Berne Convention. 156 countries have sworn to protect our intellectual property rights. If one of those countries decides that it is OK to violate the rights of citizens in the other 155 countries, then it is a rogue nation that lives off the work of others.

bwpow (September 30, 2008 at 1:51 pm)

I agree. Now, we have to wait for the final decision. I personally believe, that they did not break any law, but I am still anxiously waiting. Who knows how is it going to end.

markxq (September 30, 2008 at 11:40 am)

This is just semantics. They are awaiting trial for violations of Swedish law. You are falsely suggesting that no one thinks they committed crimes. The Swedish prosecutors disagree.

bwpow (September 30, 2008 at 11:28 am)

No, in Europe you can be charged without being arrested. You don't even need to be brought in for questioning (not the case here). You can just receive mail from court that you have been charged with something and you should attend hearing at a specified time and date. After that, if you won't attend formentioned court hearing, the arrest warrant is issued. That's how the continental court system works.

markxq (September 30, 2008 at 11:17 am)

You have no idea what you are talking about. You are arrested, then charged. They have been arrested and are awaiting trial.

bwpow (September 30, 2008 at 3:06 am)

If you read all my comments you'll see, I have always stated that they were charged but never arrested. And the trial is still to come. Being charged with something and arrested are completely different things.Don't worry, I know our laws very well. I need to, because I have had my own company for two years now. There have been public discussions in our media for a past few years about the one article I translated and almost all lawyers tend to agree with my interpretation. So it's all legal.

markxq (September 30, 2008 at 2:58 am)

Your misreading of the law is as bad as your misreading of Wiki. Read both further instead of just a few words that agree with your position.In the Wiki article, after the sentence you quote, you will find the following:"On 31 January 2008, The Pirate Bay operators Fredrik Neij, Per Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström were charged with 'promoting other people's infringements of copyright laws.'"They were released in 2006 and then arrested in 2008. Get your facts straight.

bwpow (September 30, 2008 at 2:53 am)

I quoted whole part 1. You can get it translated and then read for yourself. It's law 618/2003. If you don't like it, write to your congressman and ask him to push law to ban all trading with European Union.And for the arrests case. Don't believe MPAA propaganda, just read article on wikipedia. I quote: "The MPAA press release set forth its justification for the raid and claimed that there were three arrests; however, the individuals were not actually arrested, only held for questioning."