There is a new bill proposal in Sweden that will extend the prison term for anyone pirating an ebook or a movie on a file sharing website, such as BitTorrent. It will go from two years to six years and the amount of time someone would spend in prison would rival someone getting charged with manslaughter.
Presented by Council of Justice member Dag Mattsson, the report envisions new criminal designations and crime being divided into two levels of seriousness. “In cases of gross crimes, a person may be convicted of gross copyright infringement or gross trademark infringement and sent to prison for at least six months and not more than six years.”
This bill is likely to pass because of all the drama surrounding the Pirate Bay and Sweden is perceived as being a refuge for large scale piracy operations. This would also affect millions of people who upload as they download files and people who consume lots of audiobooks or ebooks could get hefty prison sentences.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
