Tuesday 5 April 2005

Whiff of humble pie distracts APB attack dogs

Antipiratbyran spokesman: "Hey Jon, how ya doin' pal? You remember last month when we accidentally raided your ISP and accused you of running an Aladdin's cave for software pirates? Well, err, tell ya what; let's just forget it, whadda ya say? We realize the reprehensible behaviour of that loose cannon 'Rouge' could well land us in hot water, but that's not what this is about. No, no, no, we just think it was really a lot of kerfuffle over nothing and neither of us need the hassle of taking this to court. Uhm, so if you promise not to make a fuss about our silly little slip-up, we'll do the same. Everyone makes mistakes from time to time, right?"

Not an actual quote from Sweden's anti-piracy bureau (reeeally?), but that's the paraphrased gist of the latest turn of events in the bungled Bahnhof raid escapade.

Left reeling by the highly dubious agent provocateur tactics employed by the ABP at the offices of Swedish ISP, Bahnhof, managing director, Jon Karlung, threatened judicial proceedings of his own. The row centred around the APB's use of an employee infiltrator known as 'Rouge' who was found to have transferred 68,000 illegal files throughout Bahnhof servers while undertaking an anti-piracy surveillance operation on the firm.

Following the dismissal of two Bahnhof employees and APB's infiltrator, both parties have agreed to bury the hatchet and "stand united against pirate copying". Despite the ceasefire, the Swedish Data Inspection Board and the National Post and Telecom Agency may still seek to hold the APB accountable for transgressing personal data and electronic communication laws. As Bart Simpson would say: "the ironing is delicious."

0 comments: