Extra police resources to combat piracy

As the Pirate Party is gearing up for Brussels, Swedish police authorities are ramping up their efforts against file sharers.

• Supreme Court denies Pirate Bay right to appeal (1 Feb 12)
• Dutch court orders ISPs to block Pirate Bay (12 Jan 12)
• File-sharing recognized as a religion in Sweden (5 Jan 12)

Last year's appointment of two special prosecutors assigned to copyright infringement and file sharing-related crimes has been bolstered by extra police resources, according to the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper.

SvD reported that on several occasions the prosecutors have expressed frustration that the police's resources were insufficient to investigate file sharing and copyright infringement.

“There have been cases where we have had to drop investigations because we couldn't obtain the evidence quickly enough,” Henrik Rasmusson, one of the two prosecutors, told Sveriges Radio's P3 news.

An additional 15 officers, five each in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, have been appointed by national police authorities to assist the prosecutors in investigations of copyright infringement.

“We have received a mandate from the government to implement measures to make our efforts again file sharing more effective,” Stefan Eurenius, section head at the board of Swedish Police, told SvD.

Although most of the recent media attention has focused on internet piracy, authorities emphasize that these measures also cover other copyright-related crimes, such as knockoffs from brand-name clothing or furniture.