Swedish National Prosecutor Says Sharing Music/Movies Must Be Punished Harshly, Because “It Funds Terrorism”

Copyright Monopoly: In a remarkably ignorant statement, the Swedish National Prosecutor has appealed a culture-sharing sentence to the Supreme Court with the motivation that sharing culture and knowledge “funds terrorism”. This follows a verdict from the Appeals Court that would have put an end to the witch-hunt of people sharing culture in Sweden, as it had handed out a sentence that was effectively too low to justify further persecution. In appealing to the Supreme Court, Kerstin Skarp of the Swedish National Prosecutor’s Office has shown every conceivable bit of ivory-tower ignorance.

The man had been sentenced to a fine of SEK 8000 (about 900 euros) for sharing 57 movies, a fine that had been raised by the Appeals Court. Normally, that would be the end of it, and people would move on with their lives, clenching their fists in their pockets in anger that people were persecuted at all for the good deed of sharing culture and knowledge (even if the risk of being indicted remains lower than being struck by lightning).

However, this verdict posed a problem for the copyright monopoly extremists, as it prevented the police from raiding ordinary people’s homes to collect evidence of sharing culture: only crimes that carry a jail sentence are proper grounds for a search warrant in Sweden. This verdict was a fine, not a jail sentence. Thus, this verdict carried a promise that it would mean an end to the persecution of the 250 million Europeans and 150 million Americans that do the good act of sharing culture and knowledge – well, at least, it would mean an end to the persecution in Sweden, unless somebody would voluntarily confess to this non-crime on the rare occasion.

Deputy National Prosecutor (vice riksåklagare) Kerstin Skarp would have none of it. In a remarkably ignorant appeal to the Supreme Court, sent directy from the office of the National Prosecutor, she urges the Supreme Court to overturn the verdict of the Appeals Court and issue a jail sentence, so that the persecution can continue. She justifies this with the opinion that sharing culture is a crime that is dangerous to the fabric of society (Swedish samhällsfarlig), a word normally reserved for system-threatening crime such as Hells Angels and large-scale police bribery. But she doesn’t stop there. Apparently, people sharing movies with one another is what funds terrorism. From the appeals document (in Swedish):

“Accordingly, it is of particular weight that courts regard this type of crime seriously, as it is nowadays commonly tied to international organized crime, funding terrorism, etc., and also results in substandard or dangerous products coming to market.”

I don’t know where to start. The logic of how a generous act of sharing, where no money is involved, is able to fund anything at all (which, you know, requires money in the first place?) is completely absent from the reasoning. It is a paper filled to the brim with corporate scaremongery bullshit, deliberately trying to tie honest people sharing knowledge and culture with one another to terrorists killing children for political gain.

This individual – Kerstin Skarp – is seriously dangerous to Swedish society, for real, in her position as Deputy National Prosecutor. She needs to step down or be fired immediately, having shown this kind of disastrously bad judgment, and there probably needs to be picketing outside her house until that happens.

If anybody should desire to discuss this issue further with Deputy National Prosecutor Kerstin Skarp (which I would encourage), she can be reached at e-mail registrator@aklagare.se (writing in the body text that the mail is addressed to Kerstin Skarp) or by phone, to the switchboard of the National Prosecutor’s Office at +46 10 562 50 00.

Shame, Kerstin Skarp. Seriously – your actions draw shame over your office, your person, and your country.