Swedish Police Crack Down on File Sharing Site

Believers join Missionary Church of Kopimism

(NEWSER) - Sweden may not condone file-sharing—it's still illegal—but the country is officially OK with belief in the practice. Some 3,000 passionate file-sharers have gotten their beliefs recognized as an official religion. The Missionary Church of Kopimism—as in, "copy-me-ism"—has sought official status in Sweden since 2010, and it's finally won the battle, TorrentFreak reports. The decision follows a pair of rejections; authorities wanted Kopimism to define its prayer practices. More»

Trade group wants its chunk of $7.8M acquisition

(NEWSER) - The music industry wants its money back from those copyright vigilantes at Pirate Bay, and now it sees a decent chance to get it, reports CNET. An industry trade group plans to go after the $3.6 million in damages awarded by a Swedish court now that a software company has announced it will buy the file-sharing website for $7.8 million. More»

Buyers to remodel site so content providers 'get paid'

(NEWSER) - A Swedish software company has purchased file-sharing site Pirate Bay for $7.7 million after the site was fined $3.6 million, the Register reports. “We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site,” said the CEO of Global Gaming Factory X, which is set to take over the site next month. More»

Swedish group's membership up 215% after Pirate Bay case

(NEWSER) - Swedish pirates could soon be invading the European parliament, the Times of London reports. The Pirate Party, a political group whose sole aim is encouraging Internet copyright infringement, is poised to win several seats in next month’s elections. “The plan is Sweden, Europe, the world—in that order,” said the party’s top candidate. “This is a fateful question for Europe.” More»

(NEWSER) - One of the men convicted in the Pirate Bay file-sharing case is demanding a retrial, claiming that the judge is in cahoots with copyright-protection organizations, the Local of Sweden reports. Judge Tomas Norstrom acknowledges being a member of such groups but denies any conflict of interest. Last week, he found four men guilty of making copyrighted files available for downloading on their website. More»