Swedish ISP raid prompts backlash by Theregister
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Swedish ISP raid prompts backlash - theregister.co.uk
By John Leyden 14 Mar 2005 at 17:24
Workers suspended after Bahnhof bust
A raid by Swedish authorities last week against Bahnhof, Sweden's oldest
and largest ISP, has been hailed by Hollywood as a major blow against
movie piracy. But questions have been raised about whether the 10 March
raid, orchestrated by Swedish anti-piracy organisation Antipiratbyrån,
and involving the seizure of data involving thousands of users, might
have violated the country's strict data privacy laws.
The raid against the Stockholm offices of Bahnhof involved the seizure
of four servers holding 23 terabytes of data. Reuters reports the
servers housed 1,800 movie files, 5,000 software application files and
450,000 digital audio files. Reuters, liberally quoted a Motion Picture
Ass. of America (MPAA) spokesman who described Bahnhof as a "haven for
high-level internet piracy for years" and home of "some of the biggest
and fastest servers in Europe".
Bahnhof said that it does not condone illegal file sharing. The ISP has
reportedly suspended two staffers, suspected of hosting vast quantities
on warez on its systems without management permission, pending further
inquiries. Bahnhof has issued a statement (in Swedish) expressing
concerns that data involving as many as 20,000 users was seized during
the raid. The raid against Bahnhof is not the first anti-piracy bust in
the country but it's reportedly the first to take place without any
advance notice.
Reg readers inform us that the Swedish Data Inspection Board is to
investigate alleged collection and computation of personal data
conducted by the Swedish antipiracy office in connection with the
Bahnhof raid. This remains unconfirmed since we were unable to reach
anyone at the board for comment. Bahnhof chief exec Jon Karlung is yet
to respond to Reg requests for an interview that might clarify the
current state of play. «