A yet to be released cable from the US Embassy in Stockholm will reveal that the United States Government was very concerned about file-sharing related issues in Sweden. The US Embassy actively worked with the Swedish authorities to reduce file-sharing related threats, which included The Pirate Bay which was raided in 2006 following US pressure.

It is no secret that the US Government has been actively involved in copyright enforcement in other countries, including Sweden. After the raid on The Pirate Bay’s servers in 2006, it became clear that the US had threatened to put Sweden on the WTO’s black list if they refused to deal with the Pirate Bay problem.

But that was not the end of the ‘collaboration’ between the US and Sweden on this front.

According to an unreleased US Embassy cable in possession of Swedish Television, the US pressure on Sweden to deal with file-sharing issues continued in the years that followed. In the cable, which dates back to 2008, the US Embassy presented a list of six items that they wanted to see addressed, all related to online copyright infringement.

A year later, five of these six items were indeed turned into action, including the appointment of more copyright police and prosecutors, backed up by educational anti-piracy campaigns. Of course, the Pirate Bay wasn’t left unmentioned in this cable either.

The cable writer mentions that it was hard for the Embassy to get openly involved in piracy related issues, because most of the press coverage was unfavorable towards the copyright industry.

“After the raid on The Pirate Bay on May 31, 2006, the issue of internet piracy was fiercely debated in Sweden. Press coverage was largely, and still is, unfavorable to the positions taken by the rights-holders and the United States Government,” the cable reads.

“The Pirate Bay raid was portrayed as the Government of Sweden caving in to United States Government pressure. This delicate situation made it difficult, if not counter-productive, for the Embassy to play a public role in IPR issues,” it adds.

Excerpt from the cable

In a response to the revelations, Minister of Justice Beatrice Ask denied that Sweden ever responded to pressure from the US Government. She hinted that the cable writer was making these remarks just to get a better payday.

Former Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde was surprised about the leaked cable, although the fact that the US put pressure on the Swedish Government was not that new to him.

“We all knew for a long while that the US was behind the raid and pressured Sweden, but that they’re still doing it was news to us,” Peter Sunde told TorrentFreak. “And that the Minster of Justice just says that the cable writer is lying ‘to get a higher salary’ shows that she doesn’t even care if her government is corrupt.”

The cable in question has not been published by Wikileaks yet, but is expected to be released in the near future. This, and other cables, are likely to add more insight into the backroom deals related to file-sharing and copyright issues.

Update: The full cable “Stockholm 09-141” has been published.

194710

3/2/2009 13:57

09STOCKHOLM141

Embassy Stockholm

UNCLASSIFIED//FOR

OFFICIAL USE ONLY

08STATE45106|09STATE8410

VZCZCXRO6778OO RUEHAG RUEHAST

RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLARUEHLN RUEHLZ

RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG

DE RUEHSM #0141/01 0611357

ZNR UUUUU ZZH

O 021357Z MAR 09FM AM

EMBASSY STOCKHOLM

TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4176

INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 STOCKHOLM 000141

STATE FOR EEB/TPP/IPE:TIMOTHY R MCGOWAN STATE

PLEASE PASS TO USTR FOR JENNIFER CHOE GROVES

SENSITIVE SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KIPR, ECON, ETRD, PGOV, SW

SUBJECT: SPECIAL 301 FOR SWEDEN: POST RECOMMENDATION REF:

A) STATE 8410 B) 08 STATE 45106

1. (SBU) Summary. Embassy Stockholm recommends that Sweden

continues to be placed in the Special 301 Initiative, and

not be on the Watch List for 2009. We are aware of the differing

recommendations of the International Intellectual Property

Alliance (IIPA) and PhRMA. Post recommendation is based on:

-- The progress made by the Government of Sweden (GOS) in five

out of the six items identified in the Special 301 Initiative

Action plan we communicated to the GOS last year and

-- The sensitive domestic politics that the GOS needs to manage

in order to step up internet piracy enforcement in Sweden. The

GOS struggles, with good intentions, against a very negative

media climate and against a vocal youth movement. For example,

we want to highlight the risk that negative media attention on

the file sharing issue gives the Pirate Party a boost in the EU

Parliamentary elections in June 2009.

2. (SBU) This cable reviews the progress Sweden has made on the

Special 301 Initiative Action plan which we presented to the GOS

at the conclusion of the Special 301 review 2008 (Ref B). Post

continues to engage very constructively with the GOS, and has

good access and a good working relationship with key senior and

working level GOS officials. The actions taken since last year's

review strengthen the legislative framework and provide better

enforcement tools for combating piracy. The Pirate Bay trial is

currently being heard in the district court in Stockholm. The

last day of the trial is March 4, and the verdict can be expected

on or about March 25.

3. (SBU) Embassy Stockholm believes it would be counter-

productive to watch list Sweden at this point. Likely negative

political and media reaction to a watch listing must be taken

into account. The Justice Ministry, with primary responsibility

for this issue, is fully on board and well aware of what is at

stake. It is currently battling with the Ministry of Enterprise,

Energy, and Communication about the next appropriate steps to

curb internet piracy. Now that the Enforcement Directive

implementation will finally enter into force on April 1, and

there will soon be a first District court decision in the

Pirate Bay case -- the Justice Ministry will turn its attention

to other key issues, primarily the ISP liability issue and extra

resources to investigative capabilities. The GOS (led by the

Justice Ministry) has to conduct a delicate balancing act,

advancing this issue shortly before Sweden assumes the

Presidency of the EU, in the early days of the Obama

administration, and in the budding election campaign for the EU

Parliamentary elections.

End summary. Background.

------------------------

4. (U) The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA)

has, in its yearly Special 301 submission to USTR, identified

widespread internet piracy and difficulties in achieving

effective enforcement against criminal copyright infringement

as problems in Sweden, and has requested that Sweden be placed

on the Special 301 Watch List for 2009. Sweden was not placed

on the Watch list in 2008, despite industry's demands, but was

rather placed in the relatively recent, middle step, named

Special 301 Initiative. As part of the Initiative, post

conveyed a Special 301 Action plan to the GOS, covering six

items where the USG hoped to see progress during 2008.

Review of progress on action plan

---------------------------------

5. (U) The Special 301 Initiative Action plan 2008 contained

recommendations in six specific areas. The GOS has acted, in

various degrees, in five of those areas. A review of progress

in the six areas follows in paras 6-11:

6. (SBU) Industry consultations/ISP liability: The GOS held

a series of industry consultations in the summer/fall of 2008,

with the explicit aim to discuss a voluntary industry

agreement involving ISPs and right-holders organizations.

Industry contacts reported that the ISP's were not willing

(they claim they are not able) to take on any action on a

voluntary basis. The first round of consultations was

concluded without results during the fall of 2008. The Justice

Ministry is currently working internally in the GOS to get

acceptance for a second round with a clear incentive for

progress, i.e. threatening with legislation in the absence

of a voluntary agreement. There is some resistance in the

Center party led Ministry of Enterprise, Energy, and

Communications, and negotiations are on-going at senior

GOS-levels.

7. (U) Injunctive relief: The one item without any progress

is STOCKHOLM 00000141 002 OF 003 Action plan item 2,

Injunctive relief. The GOS maintains that there are adequate

provisions currently on the books in Sweden, and does not

intend to introduce new legislation. (Note that industry

claims to the contrary were supported by the recommendations

of the Renfors Commission, a government study commissioned

to look into the file sharing issue. The GOS has declared

that it will not further implement Renfors' recommendations.

End note.)

8. (U) Implementation of the Enforcement Directive: The bill

was approved by Parliament on February 25, and the new

provisions will enter into force on April 1, 2009. The

political sensitivities made the final handling of the Bill

very delicate for the Alliance government. Much of the debate

and negotiations have been done in public, and there has been

tremendous pressure put on individual MPs. The passage of the

implementing legislation is therefore a much greater victory

for the GOS than it might appear. Major changes, compared to

the original proposal, are:

-- the law will not be retroactive, i.e. only for copyright

infringements committed after the law has entered into force

can a court order that the identity behind an IP-number be

handed out.

-- The court will make a proportionality assessment, i.e.

weigh the need of the rights-holder to get access to the

personal identity against integrity aspects of the person

behind the IP number. The law now stipulates that a certain

scale of infringement will be needed for the court to decide

that the information should be handed out. Normally, that

would be the case when the infringement consists of up-

loading a single film or musical piece -- since that

typically incurs significant damage to the rights-holder.

The same judgment will be made for a significant scale of

down-loading copyright protected material. The law

establishes that if the infringement is the down-loading of

only a few pieces, then normally the court's assessment

should be that the integrity interest must take precedence

and the information must not be handed out.

-- The law includes provisions that the GOS intends to

observe and assess how the law is used, to ensure that the

law is indeed used to go after significant cases of

copyright infringements. This monitoring will commence

immediately once the law has entered into force.

9. (U) Granting police and prosecutors the right to

identities behind IP numbers of individuals potentially

implicated in copyright crimes of lower dignity, i.e. fines

rather than prison sentences: The Justice Ministry has

also worked towards the goal of changing legislation so

that police and prosecutors can get access to information

about identities behind IP numbers in cases where the crime

could lead to a fine (rather than a prison sentence). The

usual Swedish term for this type of crime (punishable by

fine, not prison) is crime of lower dignity. At present,

law enforcement officials are only allowed to get such

information if the infringement could lead to a prison

sentence. The GOS has agreed to change the legislation, and

it was made part of a study commissioned to propose the

steps needed to implement such a change. The proposed

changes were recently separated out from the rest of the

study, and were reported in advance to Justice Minister Ask

late January 2009. Although the slow legislative process is

disappointing, the GOS has already agreed on the necessary

changes that will strengthen the investigative tools of

enforcement officials.

10. (SBU) Police and prosecutors: There are now

two full-time prosecutors dedicated to IPR/copyright

issues. Police officers have been trained, but we

understand that they are not allowed to devote attention

to IPR/copyright issues. They are back in their regular

line of duty in their districts, where there are conflicting

priorities. We have understood that the prosecutors have

alerted that this is a problem for their work - they are

stuck with a backlog of old errands and without the support

of investigative officers. The prosecutors ask for

investigative officers that are exclusively devoted to IPR

issues, today there are no such investigative capacities.

The Justice Ministry has repeatedly asked the Head of the

Swedish Police for information about how he plans to come

to terms with the investigation deficiencies. Although the

GOS recognizes the needs, the budget bill for next year

will likely not contain significant increases for law

enforcement, given the harsh economic conditions. This is

an area where post can work with the GOS and industry to

highlight the significant impact additional resources in

this area might have.

11. (SBU) Public education: In the fall of 2008, the GOS

released a new information material, primarily aimed for

youth, which will be broadly distributed in Swedish

schools. Justice Minister Ask's staffers are currently

considering the pros and cons of engaging Cabinet members

in the public debate. Given all the negative attention

around the Enforcement directive and the Pirate Bay trial,

the determination thus far has been to keep a low profile.

The GOS recognizes that there is a real risk that the

window of opportunity was lost already several years ago

-- when leading politicians didn't take the debate. How

to engage at this point is a delicate matter.

Pirate Bay

----------

12. (U) After the raid on Pirate Bay on May 31, 2006, the

issue of internet piracy was fiercely debated in Sweden.

Press coverage was largely, and still is, unfavorable to the

positions taken by rights-holders and the USG. The Pirate

Bay raid was portrayed as the GOS caving to USG pressure.

The delicate situation made it difficult, if not counter-

productive, for the Embassy to play a public role on IPR

issues. Behind the scenes, the Embassy has worked well

with all stakeholders. After 18 months of investigation,

the prosecutor filed indictments against four individuals

for contribution to copyright infringement because of their

activities administrating the Pirate Bay bit torrent

webpage. The case is currently being heard in the district

court in Stockholm, and the trial is scheduled to be

completed on March 4. The sentence is expected on or about

March 25, i.e. before the conclusion of the Special 301

review process. However, we fully expect that any outcome

will be appealed to a higher court, which means that the

final verdict will not be known for several years.

PhRMA's drug pricing issue

--------------------------

13. (U) PhRMA has also requested that Sweden be put on the

Special 301 Watch List. The request is based on the GOS

decision to de-regulate the pharmacy market in Sweden and

the alleged plans to reduce prices of patented

pharmaceuticals on the Swedish market with the aim to

finance the redesign. The price cut is believed to be as

high as 10 percent.

14. (U) According to the Swedish Ministry of Health and

Social Affairs, the GOS does not plan to impose a general

price cut on patented pharmaceuticals, but rather has the

intention of maintaining a model for a value based pricing

system. TLV, the Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency,

a central government agency, has been assigned to suggest

principles for pharmacy mark-up and to suggest how the

profitability in the pharmacy market will be assessed

and followed up. TLV will present its proposals to the

GOS on April 1 this year.

15. (U) As of March 2 there is no decision, nor anything

in writing, that confirms that the GOS is actually

proposing a 10 percent general price cut on patented

pharmaceuticals. Therefore the Embassy does not recommend

that Sweden be put on the 2009 Special 301 Watch List as

concerns the de-regulation of the Swedish pharmacies.

However, should the GOS as a result of the April 1 TLV

report reach a decision to impose a general 10 percent

price cut on patented pharmaceuticals, the Embassy will

engage in high-level advocacy with the GOS on the issue

again.

