OFF: MEIN KAMPF BANNED IN SWEDEN

[Daniel Wikdahl]

Please excuse me for sending you this via BOC-l, but I know you're
thinking persons with interrest in other things than music.
I'm _not_ a nazi - this is for me a matter of censorship/free speach
and David vs Goliat (Sweden vs Germany [ie Bayern]).
I'm not trying to start an OFF-thread, I just would like to share this
information with you.

                mvh -Daniel Wikdahl



>--------pressrelease 14 Oct 1997--------
>
>
>MEIN KAMPF BANNED IN SWEDEN
>
>On Monday 13 October a ruling by the Stockholm Regional
>Court of Appeal confirmed the sentence by the Stockholm
>City Court in the criminal case against book publisher
>Kalle Hägglund for publishing Adolf Hitler's notorious book
>Mein Kampf.
>
>The criminal case was opened on request of the Bavarian
>Ministry of Finance, which claimed to have confiscated
>Hitler's copyright for its own use. This was alleged to
>have happened on the basis of Allied de-nazification
>legislation.
>
>THE RULING BY THE STOCKHOLM COURT OF APPEAL
>
>The legal, copyright matter in the case, according to the
>Court, was
>
>    - whether Bavaria has any copyright to Mein Kampf and,
>    if so, whether this copyright can be recognized as
>    valid in Sweden.
>
>According to the Defence, the essential matter in the case
>was whether the confiscation carried out by Bavaria in 1965
>was valid in Bavaria and, if so, whether that confiscation
>has any effect in Sweden. Both questions were answered in
>the negative by the Defence. Since copyright is situated
>in each copyright-protecting nation separately, a
>confiscation of copyright made in a foreign country, even
>if legally made there, cannot be legally recognized in
>Sweden. Nor are there any Swedish laws allowing
>confiscation of copyright.
>
>The Defence also referred i.a. to the Berne Convention and
>to the war-time law cases of 1941, through which the
>Swedish Supreme Court refused to recognize confiscations
>made by German authorities to the extent those
>confiscations were meant to have effect on property
>situated in Sweden. The Defence also referred to an
>eqvivalent case in Bologna, Italy, in 1971.
>
>The matters of the case as formulated by the Defence,
>however, were not dealt with by the court, which easily -
>although after a spectacularily long time for
>consideration - answered its own questions.
>
>The Court held
>
>    - that the copyright of Mein Kampf was confiscated 'in
>    its entirety' and that 'the Free State of Bavaria has
>    acquired it'; 'there is no reason to question the
>    validity of the acquisition in Germany';
>
>    - that the confiscation of the copyright and its
>    acquisition by Bavaria does not conflict with
>    international law or the Berne Convention;
>
>    - that the confiscation of copyright - or the
>    forfeiture of such a right as the result of a crime -
>is in accordance with the Swedish ordre public only in
>    exceptional cases; in this connection the Court says
>    that 'there is an element of moral rights that -
>    according to Swedish law - may not be transferred at
>    all'; (the Defence has pointed out that copyright
>    cannot - at all - be the object of confiscation by
>    authorities);
>
>    - that forfeiture of copyright can take place as a
>    consequence of a crime by the copyright-owner, provided
>    'the forfeiture is decided because of an act which,
>    also according to the Swedish point of view,
>    constitutes a serious crime';
>
>    - that 'Sweden has recognized the creation of the
>    transitional constitution /of Germany/ through the
>    Potsdam-conference in 1945; the laws and regulations
>    created to liberate Germany from Nazism cannot in
>    themselves be considered as obviously inconsistent with
>    the Swedish legal view'.
>
>    - that 'the interests of a personal character which are
>    attached to this literary work - which after the
>    decease of the author belong to his heirs - and his
>    own literary reputation are, considering the
>    circumstances, no interest worth protecting in this
>    case'.
>
>Instead of the penalty of a fine of SEK 5000, valid during
>the judicial procedure, the Court of Appeal set a penalty
>to the unusually high sum of SEK 1,000,000 (£ 100,000),
>which is the sum the Hägglund Publishing house vill have to
>pay in case it publishes Mein Kampf again.
>
>As a consequence, Hitler's book, instead of being openly
>debated in the political life of Sweden, is likely to be
>confined to the marginal neo-nazi circles in Sweden, where
>other publications of Mein Kampf all along have been
>printed without any disturbance from Bavarian authorities.
>
>Strongly worded protests were lodged against the initial
>proceedings against Mr. Kalle Hägglund in 1994. The
>Swedish Writers' Union and the Swedish Association of
>Publishers expressed their deep concern. The interference
>into internal Swedish affairs made by the German ambassador
>and German officials of the embassy in Stockholm have been
>pointed out, with references made to Sweden's long
>democratic tradition and the extremely succesful struggle
>against nazism in the 1930's, which was carried out under
>protection of the freedom of speech for all political
>views, including that of the Nazis. It was generally
>believed that the banning of Mein Kampf in 1994 in Sweden
>would be amended by the Regional Court of Appeal in
>Stockholm.
>
>The Defence today announces that an appeal will be made to
>the Supreme Court of Sweden.
>
>
>         For further information:
>         Erik Göthe Law Firm tel/fax +46-8246004
>         <goethe at stockholm.mail.telia.com>
>
>//
>
>

"Byalagen är rådgivare åt de politiska nämnderna, så är det."
                                        -Joachim Håkansson

Daniel Wikdahl
Kaptensgatan 2a
S-39 236 KALMAR
SWEDEN
 +46 480 245 11