Tens of Thousands of Copyright Troll Cases Reported in Sweden
- Tens of thousands of digital pirates in Sweden have received legal notices for cash settlements from law firms.
- None of the instances of these cases has involved a conviction in court.
- According to experts, the cases are created by copyright trolls who fraudulently demand cash by using legal threats.
Tens of thousands of Swedish residents who pirate from torrent websites have received legal notices from copyright troll organizations. After an investigation was carried out, not a single pirate has been convicted till date since 2017. According to experts, this is known as “legal blackmail”.
Swedish law firm Spridningskollen headed by Gothia Law targeted the public in 2016 by sending out tens of thousands of legal notices to collect fines for infringing copyright regulations of Sweden. The law firm faced a lot of backlash from the citizens, causing the law firm to stop its operations in this country. Sweden was free from such copyright troll cases up until 2015, after which the number of copyright troll cases has been rising each year.
Image Courtesy of Dinjurist
A firm from Denmark has also been identified to be behind the copyright troll cases in Sweden in February last year. Njord Law is part of a troll operation and targeted ISPs like Tele2, Bredbandsbolaget, and Telia. Thousands of IP addresses have been collected by the law firm, and the locations of the users were identified to send the users “fake” legal threats. Over 35,000 legal notices have been sent out by the firm this year and the law firm will continue its operations against pirates for hefty fines.
Such law firms who involve themselves in copyright troll cases receive responses up to 60% of the time. Many pirates who have been called out by law firms pay the fines they are asked, which can go up to $550 to make the lawsuits go away. However, law firms never take action against pirates who do not comply with their requests as court records in Sweden reveal that zero people have been convicted for piracy in the past two years. It is likely that these law firms will continue to ‘extort’ money out of pirates as a significant number of people pay up without any resistance.