Pirate Bay guilty

[Sev]

The four men connected with The Pirate Bay were found guilty of being accessories to copyright infringement by a Swedish court on Friday, delivering a symbolic victory in the entertainment industry’s efforts to put a stop to the sharing of copyrighted material on the internet.

The four defendants in the case, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström, had been charged with “promoting other people's infringements of copyright laws”.

All four men were sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay 30 million kronor ($3.5 million) in damages.


Already heard a statement on the radio that they will appeal against it, with force. Press conference going on (and broadcasted live on sr.se) as i'm typing this.

[SomethingWild]

ouch..  will they be able to pay the 3.5 million? Did piratebay generate money through sponsoring?

[Sev]

They got about 10 million skr throughout the years. Which they claim (and claim have reciepts for) have gone to maintenance and servers etc. No profit made.

Should be noted that they probably wont pay an öre since they appealed it. At least not until they can't appeal it anymore. And these guys surely don't have the money to pay even a small portion of it.

[marktobias]

I want to know specifically what laws they've broken. Their side of the argument seems pretty sound to me. They're just pointing people in the direction of where to download illegal things. Google inadvertently do the same thing.

[ChocoMochaKei]

That sucks.  I loved reading the email correspondence they posted on their website    At least they'll be up for a long time to come.

[frblckstr1]

You know the easiest way to find torrents?? Google!

[redux]

I want to know specifically what laws they've broken. Their side of the argument seems pretty sound to me. They're just pointing people in the direction of where to download illegal things. Google inadvertently do the same thing.

I was thinking that when I first heard about this, but the last case that they got let off with was down tot he charge being about them specifically breaking copyright laws. Since they never actually did (only the uploaders) they got away with the charges but it seems that this time the charge of "promoting other people's infringements of copyright laws" is much more specific and, although it's a bit gutting they do fit that charge pretty well.

[Sev]

I might add, that before the press conference a spokesman of the defendants (did not hear who it was) said that operation WILL continue as usual. TPB has both piratpartiet and piratbyrån behind them, i find it very very very unlikely that something will happen to the site. Obviously they have plenty of people who are ready to, and probably already have, pick(ed) up the ball. where they left off.

About the felony: According to the court ruler or whatever it's called (Thomas something is his name iirc) what they went on in this trial is solely the evidence and actions in this specific case. They have not looked at other torrent sites, other trials (ex. Linköpingsmålet) or anything else when giving their ruling. A bit odd imo, but that's what they said at the press conf when asked.

Basically, the ruling says that the 4 gentlemen are found guilty to allowing the public to get a hold of copyrighted material by way of their servers: Accessory to copyright infringement. Thus, looking at this case, charging Google, Yahoo, all the world's ISP's and net providers etc with the same felony would not be far away. Obviously it will not happen, but as far as my Swedish law knowledge goes, this case points that they are just as guilty.

[Sev]

Pirate Bay judge 'biased': experts

The judge who sentenced four men to jail for their involvement with The Pirate Bay is also a member of the same copyright protection organisations as a number of the main entertainment industry representatives in the case, Sveriges Radio's P3 news programme reports.

High profile attorney Leif Silbersky is one of a number of experts who believes judge Tomas Norström's various memberships represent a conflict of interest.

"A retrial is a possibility, but in that case the lawyers will have to take this up immediately," Silbersky told Sveriges Radio.

Pirate Party chairman Rickard Falkvinge has called for the verdict to be scrapped.

"The copyright lobby has really managed to bring corruption to Sweden," he said in a statement.

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I don't believe the guy when he claims his involvement in these organizations did not have an effect on the outcome of the trial. He's a god damn full fledged member, of not one, but many of them. And even if he did make an impartial decisions, just being a member takes away the credibility of the entire trial.

This trial needs to be done properly, without any 'scandals'. Re-trial is in order.

[kosu]

yep it need to be retrial ~