Pirated movies traced to Swedish film body

The Swedish Film Institute (SFI) is facing filesharing allegations after an anti-piracy company traced films that had appeared on filesharing site The Pirate Bay to an IP address at the Institute.

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”From our point of view we have done everything in our power to see if there is any substance to these allegations, but so far we have found nothing,” said SFI CEO Bengt Toll to The Local.

Two weeks ago the film production company Strix and Swedish cinema giant SF Bio approached the Swedish Film Institute (SFI) with information they had received regarding Swedish films being spread illegally from the Institute and ending up on The Pirate Bay.

These suspicions, they said, were well-known in the film industry.

The information originated with an anti-piracy company called DoubleTrace who say that they have been able to trace filesharing activity over the summer to an IP-address registered to the Swedish Film Institute.

Toll said in a statement on Wednesday that they are taking the matter very seriously.

”But for us to be able to move forward now in any sort of investigation we need to get access to their information. We have been asking for this for about a week now,” he told The Local.

According to Toll, the Institute's IT specialists have been checking everything from the activities of institute staff to that of the building's other tenants who share the same IP addresses.

”We also have large public areas, where students and researchers can surf freely,” said Toll.

In order to get to grips with the situation the Institute has commissioned an external investigation from consulting company PWC in order to provide a neutral overview into the situation.

Pending this investigation Toll feels that it is unjustifiable that these allegations are continued to be spread though the media.

”If there was evidence that we have done something criminal they should report us to the police, if not, the whole thing just amounts to rumour-mongering which will ultimately hurt the entire Swedish film industry,” Toll told The Local.