Police Raid 9-Year-Old Pirate Bay Girl, Confiscate Winnie The Pooh Laptop
The lines in BOLD are bits I've highlighted:
"One such request for cash landed on the doorstep of an Internet account holder in Finland during the spring. Known locally as TTVK, Finnish anti-piracy group CIAPC sent the man a letter informing him that his account had been traced back to an incidence of online file-sharing.
To stop matters progressing further the man was advised to pay a settlement of 600 euros, sign a non-disclosure document, and move on with his life. He chose not to give in to the demands of CIAPC and this week things escalated as promised.
Tuesday morning the doorbell of the family home rang around 8am and the man, who works in the hospitality sector, had quite a shock. Police were at his door with a search warrant authorizing the hunt for evidence connected to illicit file-sharing.
Surprisingly, the man isn?t a previously unknown Kim Dotcom-related ?co-conspirator?, nor does he run a warez site or BitTorrent tracker. He is, however, guilty of having a 9-year-old daughter with a taste for pop music.
Having failed in her quest to put enough money in her piggy bank to buy the latest album from local multi-platinum-selling songstress Chisu, in 2011 she turned to the Internet, first via Google and then The Pirate Bay.
The girl?s father said the resulting downloads didn?t work so the following day they went to the store to buy music. Nevertheless, this week?s police visit shows that CIAPC mean business, no matter how young the targets or whether or not they also buy music.
In concluding their search, the police confiscated the girl?s file-sharing weapon of choice ? her Winnie The Pooh laptop ? and according to her father offered some final words.
?It would have been easier for all concerned if you had paid the compensation,? the police advised
?I got the feeling that there had been people from the MAFIA demanding money at the door,? the girl?s father explained.
?At that point my jaw hit the floor and I wasn?t sure if I was awake or dreaming. So the investigator suggested, between the lines, that I empty my wallet and keep my family in hunger for the next two weeks so that they could get rid of the case? What the f??? is this how it goes? I could evade justice murder by skipping Christmas this year??
?We have not done anything wrong with my daughter. If adults do not always know how to use a computer and the web, how can you assume that children or the elderly ? or a 9-year-old girl ? knows what they are doing at any given time online?"
I don't know about Finland, fair enough, but in England at least, piracy is a civil offense, not criminal (provided you don't sell the pirated goods for profit), so the police should not be involved at all, if Finland is the same. Does anyone know anything about Finnish law?
Either way, it's a worrying sign of what happens when businesses gain a degree of control over the police.
Source: https://torrentfreak.com/police-raid-9-year-old-pirate-bay-girl-confiscate-winnie-the-pooh-laptop-121122/
"One such request for cash landed on the doorstep of an Internet account holder in Finland during the spring. Known locally as TTVK, Finnish anti-piracy group CIAPC sent the man a letter informing him that his account had been traced back to an incidence of online file-sharing.
To stop matters progressing further the man was advised to pay a settlement of 600 euros, sign a non-disclosure document, and move on with his life. He chose not to give in to the demands of CIAPC and this week things escalated as promised.
Tuesday morning the doorbell of the family home rang around 8am and the man, who works in the hospitality sector, had quite a shock. Police were at his door with a search warrant authorizing the hunt for evidence connected to illicit file-sharing.
Surprisingly, the man isn?t a previously unknown Kim Dotcom-related ?co-conspirator?, nor does he run a warez site or BitTorrent tracker. He is, however, guilty of having a 9-year-old daughter with a taste for pop music.
Having failed in her quest to put enough money in her piggy bank to buy the latest album from local multi-platinum-selling songstress Chisu, in 2011 she turned to the Internet, first via Google and then The Pirate Bay.
The girl?s father said the resulting downloads didn?t work so the following day they went to the store to buy music. Nevertheless, this week?s police visit shows that CIAPC mean business, no matter how young the targets or whether or not they also buy music.
In concluding their search, the police confiscated the girl?s file-sharing weapon of choice ? her Winnie The Pooh laptop ? and according to her father offered some final words.
?It would have been easier for all concerned if you had paid the compensation,? the police advised
?I got the feeling that there had been people from the MAFIA demanding money at the door,? the girl?s father explained.
?At that point my jaw hit the floor and I wasn?t sure if I was awake or dreaming. So the investigator suggested, between the lines, that I empty my wallet and keep my family in hunger for the next two weeks so that they could get rid of the case? What the f??? is this how it goes? I could evade justice murder by skipping Christmas this year??
?We have not done anything wrong with my daughter. If adults do not always know how to use a computer and the web, how can you assume that children or the elderly ? or a 9-year-old girl ? knows what they are doing at any given time online?"
I don't know about Finland, fair enough, but in England at least, piracy is a civil offense, not criminal (provided you don't sell the pirated goods for profit), so the police should not be involved at all, if Finland is the same. Does anyone know anything about Finnish law?
Either way, it's a worrying sign of what happens when businesses gain a degree of control over the police.
Source: https://torrentfreak.com/police-raid-9-year-old-pirate-bay-girl-confiscate-winnie-the-pooh-laptop-121122/
Post edited by ewgf on
Comments
this is a bit like those World's Wildest Police Chases where the cops will flag some guy over for a faulty rear light, but then he doesn't stop, so it escalates into a 150mph burn-out across 3 counties, ending with the offender going offroad and crashing into a disused barn in Utah.
in other words it doesn't matter what the offense is, police will get on a power trip if non-compliance is shown at the outset.
When I first saw the headline I assumed it was something silly like the police had a warrant to confiscate all computers on the premises for analysis and so took one of those glorified speak and spell things.
Yep if you stop and resist when you're out of the car they'll bash you over the head with a club. At least if you run you have a chance of escaping, and if you don't they have to call you an ambulance when you hit the afforementioned tree :D
*Any* parent should be fully aware of what a 9yr old is doing online - that's no excuse.
In English Law, it clearly states it is against the law to penalise or fine anyone in any way, unless they've first been found guilty of a crime in a court of law. Bill Of Rights 1689. Its English Law and is still in force. Can be used to great effect for fixed penalty notices...
Most summons issued today are NOT issued by the courts. They're issued by the Council. This is also against the Law.
There's supposed to be a lawful process followed to ensure proper justice. This is gone now with the legal corporate takeover of society. And now the polticising of the Police with Labour/Conservative Commisioners.
Law is for human beings. Legal is for titles.
My ZX Art Music Page
Carlos Michelis Theme
Christopher Robbin'
That's not a real word :p
what would have happened if his daughter had been caught stealing sweets in a store? called them facists and complain about nestle being money grabbing basts?
That is certainly true, but the issue most people are concerned about in this instance isn't the fact that the little girl seems to have had unrestricted access (though that is definitely a concern) including financial access (!), but the actions of the authorities and the fact that they can demand money to "make the situation go away".
Doesn't alter the fact that the girl (assuming it was the girl who downloaded the pirate stuff, and not the father who then lied about it) shouldn't have such unsupervised access to the internet, true, but it's the misuse of authority that's more worrying in this case.
As someone said in that page's comments section:
"So the definition of terrorist is:
the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.
2.
the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.
3.
a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.
I wonder which one the RIAA thinks it is, if any."
I hope the police was well armed, the girl could have been dangerous :S
No, because no one's saying the daughter's actions were acceptable. The issue is (a) the behavior of the police, who are not supposed to intervene in matters such as this, and (b) the fact that you can be urged (to put it very mildly) to buy your way out of any future situation (regardless of the rights and wrongs of that situation).
Surely the Finns have an equivalent law of "demanding money with menances" cos you could certainly argue that's what they are doing instead of prosecuting and spending the money to set and prove their case, which may not be successful. That uncertainty is pretty much the reason this tactic is used as many people will just pay up regardless.
As I'm sure 99% of all internet users are.
That's assuming any responsible parent would let a nine year old on the Internet unsupervised.
You do prompt a serious point, though - most of us, myself especially, never bother to read the software licensing agreements, so we don't know what we are legally agreeing to.
Lawsuit for taking the laptop!
Edit, oh I guess they are getting her for uploading not downloading
I s'pose my point is that the elephant in the room is pretty much everyone who uses the Internet is guilty of some form of copyright theft at some time or other. Which doesn't make it right, but singling out small groups of people for being "norty" when most otherwise law-abiding people are guilty of the same offence is an exercise in futility.
Gosh - I think I'm agreeing with you, ewgf! This may be a precursor to the 2012 Mayan apocalypse... :)
You're assuming that Finnish law grants you the right to make electronic copies on a CD you've purchased anyway. That wasn't the situation in Britain for a long time.
The demands of copyright lawyers are obviously ludicrous but we all know this already don't we? I don't know enough about how Finnish law is structured to know if it's a matter for the police over there but this sounds like rather a non story to me. I dislike the media mob as much as anyone but I'm a cantankerous sort so playing up the little girl angle to try to influence my opinion offends me just as much. :p
Yoink!
Now that I have the copyright I'm suing you retrospectively for infringing "my" copyright. :p
Ain't copyright theft a bugger ;)
Not really, that's why they gouge them so heavily. They can't get the money off everyone who pirates their media, so they fine the 0.01% they catch 10000% of the cost. Seemples :)
The "a download != a lost sale" mantra looks rather like nonsense too if this case is anything to go lol :)
are you joking? the whole article centered around the little girl and her winnie the pooh laptop, you really have to be blind not to see that the article wanted to be titled 'evil authorities target innocent little girl'
the girl was breaking the law, the police were helped by a thrid party organisation.
its the same in parts of the UK if you are caught littering, the local council will issue you a fine, and the police will turn up if you say you'd rather not pay.
can you please point out the bit where the finnish police aren't allowed to do anything with piracy?
Unless you have permission from ccowley to use his automatic copywrite (as the author) then your (c) means nothing :)
If you think that's bad - it looks like I am agreeing with Mile!!
Err ... you mean that the other way around, right? I took it that the "third party organisation" called the police.