23.6.2006
New insurance for filesharers
The Swedish Net War took yet another curious turn yesterday.
Aftonbladet reports how a new insurance service has been launched by Magnus Bråth from Uppsala to protect Swedish filesharers from possible fines in case they get caught. By paying 140 Swedish crowns (about 1,5 USD) to Magnus, he will pay your fines in case you run out of luck in your online culture sharing activities.
"So far the fines from filesharing verdicts have been around 18,000 crowns (1,800 USD). With some 1,000 paying customers this will work fine", says 29-year old Magnus who operates his insurance company under name
tankafritt.nu (translating to 'ThinkFreely.Now'). "I got worried when I realized that record and film companies can dictate our laws. This is my contribution to the debate." The insurance will cover only the fines passed by Swedish courts - should movie or record companies demand extra compensations for their economical losses, those will not be covered.
Insurances against fines are not a new idea in Sweden. So far there have been similar services available for drivers to insure against possible speeding tickets and also for people using public transport services for free to cover for 'control payments' should they get caught for freeriding. The existing insurances have worked well so far, and many students and other low-income citizens have opted to pay a small annual insurance fee instead of paying repeatedly for the fairly expensive bus, train and metro tickets. Whenever they get caught in a random ticket check, they will routinely mail the control payment ticket to the insurance company and forget about it.
Antipiracy organization Antipiratbyrån's lawyer Henrik Pontén is perhaps surprisingly supporting the new insurance idea. "We welcome the idea. One of our big problems so far has been that those being punished for filesharing have not had the money to pay their fines. Hopefully this will bring a change to that. I don't see though how this would cover the filesharers against the much bigger compensation costs set by courts." The new insurance company does not intend to expand its coverage beyond fines.
Magnus Bråth consulted lawyers before starting the operation and found out that the company's business model is legal in Sweden. He himself is not a filesharer but sympathizes filesharers enough to protect them with his service. So far four Swedes have been sentenced to fines for filesharing; none of them has so far had to pay any extra compensations to the content industry.