Pirate Party launches file-sharer fine insurance

The idea comes from a similar scheme to pay fines incurred for non-payment of fares in the Stockholm metro system.

“On the Internet, it is very difficult to know what is legal and what is not, especially as the copyright law has little basis in public opinion on justice,” said Gustav Nipe, chairman of the Pirate Party youth league, Ung Pirat, which is the organisation behind the insurance.

“We are therefore seeing to it that internet users can always feel safe on the internet,” he said.

The insurance concept is inspired by planka.nu, a group which pays fines incurred for getting caught without a ticket in the Stockholm metro.

The risks of getting caught while file-sharing remain small with only a small number of people having been prosecuted in recent years.

But the risk remains and the insurance is being marketed as an economical way to insurance against financial penalty.

Henrik Rasmusson, one of the special prosecutors concerned with file-sharing in Stockholm, pointed out that while the insurance may provide peace of mind against fines, it wouldn’t help with probation or even prison.

“Some 95 percent of the judgments that have been passed down in file-sharing cases have resulted in probation and you never insurance yourself against a suspended sentence,” he said.

“In reality it will only be an insurance if the penalty is limited to a fine, which hardly ever happens. The insurance is thus rendered somewhat ineffective.”

TT/The Local/pvs

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