6946922
submission
paulraps writes:
Forget Spotify and Skype: the latest strangely-named-but-hey-it's-free service from Sweden offers users streamed on-demand movies free of charge, has deals with two major Hollywood studios, and is called Voddler. Since its launch two weeks ago, the service has signed up a quarter of a million users and has almost the same number queuing for an invitation. After signing deals with Disney and Paramount, the company access to thousands of films, which are shown uninterrupted after a barrage of ads. The target is the file-sharing generation: "Our customers can be sure that Voddler is totally legal, secure, and that there are no risks of computer viruses infecting their machines from downloaded files," says executive vice president Zoran Slavic.
5037507
submission
paulraps writes:
The Pirate Bay is to be bought for $7.8 million by Global Gaming Factory X (GGF), a Swedish company specializing in internet café management software, the company has announced. As well as taking over the controversial brand, GGF has also bought Peerialism, a small IT company with roots at Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology, which has developed a new file sharing technology. The acquisitions mean that GGF will be at the heart of "the international digital distribution market", allowing it to introduce a new pay model for file sharing.
496710
submission
paulraps writes:
Suddenly the founders of the Pirate Bay are not so hearty. The four men behind the popular file-sharing site were indicted in Sweden on Thursday on charges of being accessories to breaking copyright law. And this is more than just a shot across the bows. The prosecutor reckons that they can be hooked for 'promoting other people's copyright breaches' but there will be no walking the plank: instead, they face fines of up to $200,000 and the confiscation of all their hardware.
431948
submission
paulraps writes:
Swedish athletes Carolina Klüft and Stefan Holm have proposed a radical technological measure to stop top level competitors from taking performance-enhancing drugs. Klüft and Holm, reigning Olympic champions in the heptathlon and high-jump events, argue that competitors at the highest level should either have computer chips implanted into their skin or GPS transmitters attached to their training bags so that the authorities can keep tabs on them at all times.
274917
submission
paulraps writes:
Swedish internet service providers may soon be required by law to take greater responsibility for unlawful file-sharing. Although rejecting the ludicrous idea of an overarching broadband fee which would be shared out among copyright holders, a government report published on Monday called for internet providers to be "bound to contribute to bringing all copyright infringement to an end". Under the proposal, copyright holders whose material is being shared illegally would be entitled to compensation from ISPs which did not ban users. Needless to say, the country's ISPs are not happy.
272371
submission
paulraps writes:
A Swedish IT consultant has caused a stir in diplomatic circles after publishing a list of secret log-in details belonging to 100 embassies, public authorities and political parties around the world. Dan Egerstad said he wasn't trying to earn money, gain publicity or get a name for himself in hacking circles. Instead he claimed that publishing the list was easier than contacting the organisations individually — and that if he had handed it to the Swedish authorities then that would have been spying.
219399
submission
paulraps writes:
A 75 year old woman from Karlstad in central Sweden has been given a scorching 40 Gbps internet connection — the fastest residential connection anywhere in the world, The Local reports. Sigbritt Löthberg is the mother of Swedish internet guru Peter Löthberg, who is using his mother to prove that fiber networks can deliver a cost-effective, ultra-fast connection. Sigbritt, who has never owned a computer before, can now watch 1,500 HDTV channels simultaneously or download a whole high definition DVD in two seconds. Apparently "the hardest part of the whole project was installing Windows on Sigbritt's PC".
155563
submission
paulraps writes:
Almost a year after a police raid on the Pirate Bay's servers, a Swedish prosecutor has announced that he intends to press charges against the individuals behind the file-sharing giant. They will be prosecuted for various breaches of copyright law, reports The Local. But a Pirate Bay spokesman was defiant, saying, "I think they feel they have to do it. It would look bad otherwise, since they had 20 to 30 police officers involved in the raid."
111469
submission
paulraps writes:
What began as a teaching aid in a university lecture has just been bought by Google for an undisclosed sum. The statistics tool, Trendalyzer, was developed by a professor at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute and his son. Unfortunately for the developers, the project has been run under the auspices of a charity, Gapminder, and financed over the last seven years by public money. Maybe that seemed smart at the time, but the professor, admitting that he won't see a dime of Google's cash, now seems regretful.
106412
submission
paulraps writes:
Sweden is close to implementing new surveillance legislation that will include the monitoring of emails, telephone calls and keyword searches using advanced pattern analysis. The objective is to detect "threats such as terrorism, IT attacks or the spread of weapons of mass destruction" but the proposals have divided the country. In a misguided attempt to put people at ease, the government admitted that Sweden has been tapping its citizens' phones for decades anyway.
95186
submission
paulraps writes:
Sweden is to pass legislation making Denial of Service attacks illegal. The offence will carry a maximum jail term of two years, and is thought to be a direct response to the attack which crashed the Swedish police's web site last summer. Nobody was charged for that, but the fact that it came shortly after a raid on the Pirate Bay's servers was thought by many to be not entirely coincidental.
Sweden's move follows the UK, which is even tougher on web attackers — there the sentence can be over five years in prison.
71848
submission
paulraps writes:
Notorious Swedish file-sharing website The Pirate Bay is planning to buy its own nation in an attempt to get around troublesome international copyright laws. The organisation, the world's largest bit torrent tracker, has set its sights on Sealand, a former British naval platform in the North Sea that has been designated a 'micronation' and claims to be outside UK jurisdiction. With a target price of £500m it won't be cheap, but Pirate Bay says contributors will become honorary citizens.
12215
submission
paulraps writes:
Why should a video that's funny in Shanghai be funny in Stockholm? That's the explanation for why Bubblare.se, a Swedish competitor to YouTube, is getting around 30 times as many viewers for its Scandinavian video clips as the American market leader. Local beats global in this market, says managing director Oskar Kalmaru, reports The Local.
