Lawsuit insurance only $19/yr ... in Sweden

Filed in archive International , Legal on July 3, 2006

tankafritt.nu is offering copyright infringement insurance for just $19 per year in Sweden. Magnus Braath, a 29-year-old student, says he will pay all fines plus give you a shirt if you're convicted of downloading unauthorized files (1, 2). The t-shirt reads "I got convicted for file-sharing and all I got was this lousy T-shirt."

Brath says "The fines aren't very big in Sweden. And there has only been a handful of convictions....My No.1 priority is to keep a big buffer ready." He expects the largest fine to be about $2,200 US.

Why is he doing this? Brath adds "I wanted to make some sort of statement." The only problem - Sweden is not a P2P friendly place. See "Friends don't let friends visit Stockholm." Violations also carry a two year prison. At least you'll have no debt and a clean t-shirt when you leave the slammer.

I wish him the best with the program. He'll need 115 people to pay for each maximum fine, which is a reasonable ratio.

Disclaimer - My company RazorPop announced its own subscription plan with insurance a year ago.