Reading the news [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.128965] that a student faces a sentace of 10 years prison for modifying consoles and the recent news [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.128898] that of a young student being sentanced to 2 years of prison for hosting Nintendo DS roms.
As a Swede, I cannot forget the most famous trial [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.107795#1800517] and sentance that took place not a long time ago, the Pirate Bay trial where 3 men where sentanced to prison for 1 year and a hefty fine on top of that.
I personally am against piracy and I do think that combating piracy should be enforced. I am all for endorsing copyright owners and giving money where it should go - to the developers and publishers of videogames. I find however the punishment for comitting piracy to be unfair and at worst; entirely ludicrous. Why? Because regular crimes such as assault, robbery and rape doesn't have anywhere near the same kind of hars punishment.
Today an article was released in the local newspaper.
The article mentions that a man was sentanced to prison for severely beating up his spouse.
Apparently, the man dragged his spouse by the hair over a bridge a couple of months ago and when asked what he was doing by a couple of teenagers he threatened to beat them up.
The man dragged his spouse to the courtyard outside her house where he continued to beat her up by throwing a flowerput on her head so hard that the pot broke. He then pushed her against the wall choke-holding her and by then some neighbours called the police and he was arrested.
After we was released after interrogation he went home to the woman again, beat her up, burnt her face with lit cigarettes, threatened her with a knife and axe. He got arrested minutes later.
The sentance for mentioned act? For the accounts of insulting treatment, assault, carrying a knife in public (illegal in Sweden), posession of drugs, vandalism and witness tampering he got 12 months of prison.
Or how about this guy?
'Kjell' - a Swedish male man of age 42 was recently arrested for D.U.I after running over and killing 2 people in a traffic-on-pedestrian accident. He has commited 40 cases of D.U.I in his lifetime - the latter one the severest form which resulted in him killing an old man and his son. The sentance? 16 months in prison.
Somehow, I think that somewhere we got off the wrong track when valuing copyrighted material. To me, it is just batshit bonkers how the act of copying a couple of files and sharing them is somehow more severe than that of physically harming someone.
I am against piracy, but prioritizing the will of the entertainment industry more than that of the intergrity and justice for teh citizens is whre it all goes wrong.
Your thoughts?
As a Swede, I cannot forget the most famous trial [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.107795#1800517] and sentance that took place not a long time ago, the Pirate Bay trial where 3 men where sentanced to prison for 1 year and a hefty fine on top of that.
I personally am against piracy and I do think that combating piracy should be enforced. I am all for endorsing copyright owners and giving money where it should go - to the developers and publishers of videogames. I find however the punishment for comitting piracy to be unfair and at worst; entirely ludicrous. Why? Because regular crimes such as assault, robbery and rape doesn't have anywhere near the same kind of hars punishment.
Today an article was released in the local newspaper.
The article mentions that a man was sentanced to prison for severely beating up his spouse.
Apparently, the man dragged his spouse by the hair over a bridge a couple of months ago and when asked what he was doing by a couple of teenagers he threatened to beat them up.
The man dragged his spouse to the courtyard outside her house where he continued to beat her up by throwing a flowerput on her head so hard that the pot broke. He then pushed her against the wall choke-holding her and by then some neighbours called the police and he was arrested.
After we was released after interrogation he went home to the woman again, beat her up, burnt her face with lit cigarettes, threatened her with a knife and axe. He got arrested minutes later.
The sentance for mentioned act? For the accounts of insulting treatment, assault, carrying a knife in public (illegal in Sweden), posession of drugs, vandalism and witness tampering he got 12 months of prison.
Or how about this guy?
'Kjell' - a Swedish male man of age 42 was recently arrested for D.U.I after running over and killing 2 people in a traffic-on-pedestrian accident. He has commited 40 cases of D.U.I in his lifetime - the latter one the severest form which resulted in him killing an old man and his son. The sentance? 16 months in prison.
Somehow, I think that somewhere we got off the wrong track when valuing copyrighted material. To me, it is just batshit bonkers how the act of copying a couple of files and sharing them is somehow more severe than that of physically harming someone.
I am against piracy, but prioritizing the will of the entertainment industry more than that of the intergrity and justice for teh citizens is whre it all goes wrong.
Your thoughts?