TPB Timeline

Things aren't as unclear as they appear.

Get It Try It

31 August 2005 Prosecutor's Office, Financial Crimes Unit, Federal Police publish Overview of crime prevention in the area of intellectual property (Ju2005/7332/L3). Comments from IFPI and the Anti-Pirate Bureau outweigh everything else. They claim Sweden can't be fulfilling international obligations if The Pirate Bay is not shut down.

12 October 2005 Some of the MPAA's biggest names arrive in Stockholm. They contact Dan Eliasson, cabinet secretary in the department of justice, as well as two unnamed members of the cabinet. Monique Wa(d)sted also turns up representing the MPAA on local turf. Wasted's the one who contracts security firm Gothia Protection to chart the operations of The Pirate Bay and spy on individuals who run the tracker and others they come into contact with. This becomes the groundwork for the 31 May raid.

30 November 2005 Håkan Roswall publishes his memo where he concludes it's not possible to raid The Pirate Bay.

Swedish protection for movie producers is limited to copyright holders belonging to the EEA. US producers are not covered by Swedish copyright law or by international copyright law. The representatives of the US firms claim their companies have the copyright through something called 'work for hire' - this concept is applicable in Sweden only for computer software.

I believe we in Sweden should follow Swedish copyright law. A movie's copyright belongs to those who've done the work to create the movie - the director, the writer, the cameraman, the sound man, the scenographer and for animated movies the artists who creat the pictures. For a producer to have the actual copyright there must occur a transfer from the groups mentioned above. As such transfers do not occur for the producers' benefit in the US they cannot claim to have the actual copyright in Sweden.

12 January 2006 Officials at the US embassy in Stockholm and from the Swedish department of justice meet face to face to discuss the file sharing issue.

2 March 2006 Minister of justice Thomas Bodström releases Assignment for the federal police and the prosecutor's office to together work to effectively combat IP crime. 'Both crimes of a greater nature and smaller nature are covered by the measures', the paper reads - of course without naming The Pirate Bay directly.

13 March 2006 Wired prints 'The Pirate Bay: Here to Stay?' Mikael Viborg and Rasmus Fleischer are interviewed. Viborg is later arrested.

17 March 2006 John Malcolm of the MPAA writes to Dan Eliasson. This letter is also sent to Dan Glickman of the MPAA, Chris Marcich of the MPAA, and Ingrid Kollist of the US embassy in Stockholm.

I would urge you once again to exercise your influence to urge law enforcement authorities in Sweden to take much needed action against The Pirate Bay.

7 April 2006 Håkan Roswall is summoned to the department of justice. He meets with the two unnamed officials from the cabinet who earlier mentioned possible sanctions against Sweden if The Pirate Bay were not stopped. At the same time they point out they in no way are attempting to pressure Roswall as that would be illegal in Sweden. Dan Eliasson summons chief prosecutor Sven-Erik Alhem to his office. Alhem is told in no uncertain terms The Pirate Bay is the overriding priority. Alhem then instructs federal prosecutor Fredrik Wersäll to tell Håkan Roswall he is to be freed of all other duties for the time it takes to further pursue The Pirate Bay.

10 April 2006 Dan Eliasson replies to John Malcolm of the MPAA.

In the instruction, the authorities are requested to take measures to achieve a more effective enforcement of intellectual property rights, especially concerning infringements of such rights in connection with the use of the Internet. The authorities must take appropriate actions and report to the Government already by June 15, 2006. This is a short timeframe, giving a strong signal that the Government expects immediate results.

11 April 2006 Swedish television programme Uppdrag granskning has an episode about file sharing and the hunt for the pirates. Dan Eliasson is invited to the show and amongst other things tells the public the following.

The government cannot capitulate.

10-14 April 2006 Officials and police from the US are in Stockholm for 'an exchange on the topic of file sharing' - meaning the Swedish police get to listen to lectures by the FBI and the MPAA.

6 May 2006 The 'Kavkaz Centre' website hosted by PRQ is raided on orders from Håkan Roswall.

31 May 2006 The raid on TBP - immediate results!

Swedish copyright law doesn't offer movie producers outside the EEA much protection.
 - Håkan Roswall

Accessory to crime implies it's been proven a crime has been committed. My belief is one can't get a court to rule on this if you have to presume (guess) a crime has been committed. This makes our investigation all the more difficult.
 - Håkan Roswall

The raid wasn't about prosecuting or convicting - it was an act of pure sabotage. The objective was to get computers collecting dust in police storerooms so the infrastructure of file sharing and the politics of the Pirate Bureau would be shut down for months and possibly even years.
 - Rasmus Fleischer