It was just another typical weekday morning in a normal Finnish family home. It was only 8am, and parents and children were going through their usual routine. Then there was a knock at the door: it was the police, come to seize the Winnie the Pooh laptop of the resident 9-year-old pirate.


Torrent Freak reports that Finnish police raided the home after local anti-piracy group CIAPC determined copyrighted files had been downloaded illegally at the residence. After the girl's father refused to pay a 600 euro fine, the authorities raided the home and seized evidence—including the Winnie the Pooh laptop of the girl.

Turns out that she'd been trying to download a number of song by Finnish pop star Chisu using The Pirate Bay. The father claims that the downloads didn't work—they instead purchased a CD from a local store—but that doesn't seem to have bothered Finnish ISPs, the CIAPC or the police. The girls's father has explained:

"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?"


Rules are rules, of course, but taking away a child's laptop over a couple of failed torrents seems a little draconian. So far nobody's apologized to the family—do you think they should? [Torrent Freak via BGR]

Image by Andrew Stawarz under Creative Commons license