A change in crime fighting in Sweden? I hope not!

Oscar Swartz writes a good blog entry about what the real discussion is after the court decision related to IPRED1. He point out exactly what I have been nervous about regarding the whole filesharing discussion. That the interests from the movie and music industry is in reality not only to find who is copying the digitized information. They should also be able to sue in a civil process the suspected individual instead of waiting for the police and courts to run the normal crime fighting process.

This change in how a crime is to be stopped is now a political decision, and what worries me is that the responsible people in the department of justice in Sweden are not aware of this change.

What we have to remember that on July 9 a proposal was presented for a change of legislation in Sweden that would make exactly this change. A change that would be against the overall direction laid out by the now released court decision. Without any reflection on what impact that would have to a similar change on other kind of crime. If I get my car broken into, can I get address of a random person that I think might have committed the crime so that I can find the person, and knock him down?

Now it is time Swedish politicians decide how they want crime to be managed. Should (according to the Swedish proposal) civil processes be a tool that can be used, or is crime fighting a job for the police (as today)? Or as Oscar writes, should the politicians now ensure their voters can be sued instead of being target for a normal police/court driven process?