37 
News from the front line of the war on piracy, and the record companies have struck an important blow in their quest for equality: a terrible, law-breaking, 9-year-old pirate has had the super-powerful dangerous tools of her trade confiscated by the police. Thank God for that.
That’s probably what the press release for Finnish police said, at least. Following action by Finnish company CIAPC (the group behind forcing ISPs to block The Pirate Bay in Finland), the police raided the home of an alleged file-sharer — in this case a 9-year-old girl — and seized vital evidence of her misdemeanours, a rather fetching Winnie the Pooh laptop. This was all following an exchange of letters between CIAPC, in which they demanded a “settlement fee” — about 600 euros — and the signing of a non-disclosure agreement (presumably so that the 9-year-old couldn’t rally her Runescape army and crush the record labels). The father, quite rightly, said no; as he put it, “I got the feeling that there had been people from the MAFIA demanding money at the door”.
I understand that record labels need to defend their artists, and that piracy is a problem for them. This is definitely not the way forward though; the tactics at use are disturbing. The heavy-handed approach, I guess, is meant to intimidate, so that people will cough up the settlement fee, rather than suffer the disruption of morning raids by the police. Even the rozzers are in on the scam: they told the father “It would have been easier for all concerned if you had paid the compensation”. Whatever happened to ‘innocent until proven guilty’? And, more to the point, since when has harassing a small girl been a proportionate response to a little kid trying to download a couple of songs? C’mon guys, lighten up. [TorrentFreak]
Image credit: No sign from Shutterstock
Woman Survives Earthquake Thanks to Her Laptop
A Nine-Year-Old Girl Got a New Ancient Flying Reptile Species Named After Her Because She Discovered It
Ex-MI5 Boss Gets Her Laptop Nicked In Heathrow Bringing Terror Cops Running
The wtf tag says it all.
Throw her in the slammer. Let her sweat that attitude out.
Looks like anti piracy policies are finally bearing fruit.
She should be made an example, to send a message to everyone who wants to pirate stuff.
Aren’t artists already making enough! What are they whining about anyway!
Fifty million isn’t enough. Five hundred million puts them up in the big leagues, the types that get invited round to Obama’s secret bunker when the world collapses in on itself.
If Snoop D.O Double G and Pitbull are in that bunker, it’s worth it to chuck in a live grenade as well, for good measure.
The record labels are cutting their own noses off here. All it takes is a someone with a clue, and a little organisation to get a mass boycott going on, and their profits will take a hit.
The parents should be ashamed giving that laptop to their daughter, that’s the real crime.
no they shouldn’t, they have it sussed because when the either drop it, stand on the screen or spill their drink on it, they will be glad
i speak from experience with laptops and daughters lol
look how poor artists are, i mean piracy is hurting them real bad :/
€600! seriously?! looking on some Finnish price comparison websites, you can get a decent laptop for about €400/€500 and then just buy a Winnie the Pooh decal off ebay!
Why would they buy the laptop back?!
If I was a world class hacker I’d definitely doing it from a laptop like this, if only to create news stories like this (though lets be honest, you’d earn MAD respect from all the other hackers).
The police seem to be turning into the private army of big companies, how is society meant to have any respect for them when they become the bullies for cooperate greed?
She is living the Thug Life
I thought music piracy was in decline anyway? Admittedly even I just use something like spotify most of the time now.
I think the little b*$%&£ should be publicly executed for commenting such a heinous crime. I hope she rots in prison. Everybody knows that these pirates are driving the record labels into ruin, forcing them to cut their champagne purchases by nearly -30%, and all the independent studies that show pirates disproportionately purchase more songs and spend more on music and artists than non-pirates are all lies by the liberal media leeches.