Policy Observatory

The US government prosecuted a South Korean businessman for illegally selling technology used in aircraft and missiles to Iran. The authorities exercised the border exception rule that allows to seize and search goods and people—without court warrants—along the border and at airport international terminals.

The court ruled that the authorities illegally seized the businessman's computer at Los Angeles International Airport and that the initial seizure cannot be justified.

In April 2015, prosecutor Fredrik Ingblad directed claims against Fredrik Neij (one of the creators of The Pirate Bay) in an effort to disrupt the operation of The Pirate Bay website in Sweden. Ingblad also filed a complaint against Punkt SE (IIS), the organisation responsible for Sweden’s .se top-level domain. Mr Ingblad argued that the domains ‘ThePirateBay.se’ and ‘PirateBay.se’ were used as “tools” to aid and abet copyright infringement and should therefore be seized by the Swedish state.

In December 2017 the Swedish Supreme Court confirmed that the two domains can indeed be seized by the state.