A series of documents released by the US Department of State have revealed how Sweden was pressed to take action against The Pirate Bay. According to US officials, this directly led to law enforcement's decision to shut down the torrent site more than ten years ago. Sweden, meanwhile, avoided a spot on the feared US Trade Representative's 301 Watch List.It’s well known that the US Government is actively involved in copyright enforcement efforts around the globe.
In some countries they’ve
actively helped write copyright law. Elsewhere, U.S. authorities provide concrete suggestions for improvement, including in Sweden.
After The Pirate Bay was
raided for the first time, more than ten years ago, the media highlighted that the U.S. Government and Hollywood pulled strings behind the scenes. However, little was known about what this actually entailed.
Today we can provide more context, thanks to a Freedom of Information request that was sent to the
U.S. Department of State. While the events happened a decade ago, they show how action against The Pirate Bay was discussed at the highest political level.
The trail starts with a cable sent from the US Embassy in Sweden to Washington in November 2005. This is roughly six months before the Pirate Bay raid, which eventually resulted in criminal convictions for four men connected to the site.
The Embassy writes that Hollywood’s MPAA and the local Anti-Piracy Bureau (APB) met with US Ambassador Bivins and, separately, with Swedish State Secretary of Justice at the time, Dan Eliasson. The Pirate Bay issue was at the top of the agenda during these meetings.
“The MPA is particularly concerned about PirateBay, the world‘s largest Torrent file-sharing tracker. According to the MPA and based on Embassy’s follow-up discussions, the Justice Ministry is very interested in a constructive dialogue with the US. on these concerns,” the cable reads.
“Embassy understands that State and Commerce officials have also met with Swedish officials in Washington on the same concern,” it adds, with the Embassy requesting further “guidance” from Washington.
Ole Dammegard is the author of Coup d’etat, a masterful book on the death of the Prime Minister of Sweden, Olof Palme… tracing all the various angles and connections between that assassination and other hits around the globe. This includes the Kennedy assassination, the false flags Aurora, Sandy Hook and Boston Bombings and more…
