The Pirate Bay conviction

Kalber · Apr 19, 2009

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090418/ap_on_re_eu/eu_sweden_pirate_bay

he Stockholm district court on Friday sentenced Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom to one year in prison each for helping millions of Pirate Bay users commit copyright violations of movies, music and computer games.

The court also ordered them to pay 30 million kronor ($3.6 million) in damages to international entertainment companies, including Warner Bros., Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Columbia Pictures.

1 year in prison and $3.6 million in damages, wow that's harsh! :fsu:

Feyd · Apr 19, 2009

Kalber said:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090418/ap_on_re_eu/eu_sweden_pirate_bay

1 year in prison and $3.6 million in damages, wow that's harsh!

damn I just downloaded a Busdriver album from tpb

Cannabal · Apr 19, 2009

Feyd said:
damn I just downloaded a Busdriver album from tpb

Now u can do it legally since now its payed allready by those young men.

mpd · Apr 19, 2009

Man, they are getting serious. I think they should be forced to give their music away to those of us who can't afford to pay for downloads so that we can have the same level of musical inspiration as do those people who have the money to pay for music.

weedster · Apr 19, 2009

fuck government, fuck slovenian sazas, the time will come when i will became president and then we all live in fucking coexistence.

peace :smoke:

Tokabowl · Apr 19, 2009

Pirate Bay guilty

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 Stockholm district court has today convicted the four people charged with promoting other people's infringement of copyright laws," the court said in a statement.

The four defendants in the case, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström, were each sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay 30 million kronor ($3.56 million) in damages.

The Stockholm District Court printed up 250 copies of the judgment to meet the expected interest from media outlets.

"By providing a website with ... well-developed search functions, easy uploading and storage possibilities, and with a tracker linked to the website, the accused have incited the crimes that the filesharers have committed," the court said in a statement to the media.

The court added that the four "knew that copyrighted material was being fileshared."

The one-year jail sentences were motivated by the "extensive accessibility of others' (copy)rights and the fact that the operation was conducted commercially and in an organized fashion."

In an unusual step, the court also held a press conference shortly after making the ruling public.

Taking questions from dozens of journalists, district court judge Tomas Norström explained that the 30 million kronor damages claim was to be paid together by all four men.

Thus, if one of the defendants doesn’t have the money to cover his share, one of the other men would have to pay a larger share of the claim.

Norström was also asked if the ruling meant that other websites such as Google, which handle bitTorrent files, are also illegal.

“We’ve looked at the conditions in this case,” answered Norström.

Founded in 2003, The Pirate Bay makes it possible to skirt copyright fees and share music, film and computer game files using bitTorrent technology, or peer-to-peer links offered on the site.

None of the material can thus be found on The Pirate Bay server itself.

The four, who have denied any wrongdoing, are expected to appeal the verdict and have previously vowed to take the case as high as the Swedish Supreme Court if necessary.

The Pirate Bay claims to have some 22 million users worldwide.

Swedish police raided the company's offices several times and seized nearly 200 servers in 2006, temporarily shuttering the site. But it resurfaced a few days later with servers spread among different countries.

The site is still in operation.

According to public prosecutor Håkan Roswall, The Pirate Bay produced annual earnings of around 10 million kronor ($1.2 million).

He argued that the site was purely a business enterprise and that defendants should each receive prison sentences of up to one year.

Each of the four men charged in the case are connected to The Pirate Bay in different ways, although none claim to be the sole founder or primary operator of the site.

During the trial, they argued that they hadn’t earned a single krona from The Pirate Bay and that the site was more of a hobby. The income earned from advertising on the site simply covers the cost of operating The Pirate Bay, they claimed.

Specifically, the case dealt with alleged illegal file sharing of 20 songs, nine films, and four computer games with the US entertainment industry looking to claim up to $15 million in damages from the accused.

The courtroom proceedings, which concluded in early March, featured a number of tense moments, memorable quotes, and legal theatrics.

On the second day of the trial, Roswall announced he was amending the charges by removing all mention of "complicity in the production of copyrighted material".

"A sensation," defence lawyer Per E. Samuelson said at the time.

"It is very rare that you win half the case after one and a half days and it is clear that the prosecutor has been deeply affected by what we said yesterday."

Later, the defence accused prosecutors and lawyers for the entertainment industry of “Perry Mason tactics” when they attempted to introduce new documents into evidence.

And when Per Sundin, the head of Universal Music in Sweden, detailed the losses suffered by his company in recent years, he laid the blame squarely on The Pirate Bay, calling the site “the biggest and baddest villain” in the music industry’s battle against illegal file sharing.

But it was defendant Svartholm Warg who perhaps best summed up his and the other defendants’ attitudes toward the entertainment industry and prosecutor Roswall, following the latter’s argument in his closing statement that The Pirate Bay was a profitable business.

“The old bastard’s crazy,” he told the TT news agency during a break in the proceedings.

Attorney Per E. Samuelson, who represented Carl Lundström in the case, suspected that the Stockholm court had been subject to “political pressure” in reaching its judgment.

“Power, the establishment, all point their fingers at a group of young rebels who have found a new technology and say that they should be convicted. That makes it not so easy for the district court to resist such political pressure,” he told the TT news agency, adding that his client was “shocked and upset” over the verdict.

“He’s facing a damages claim of 30 million kronor and is also supposed to sit in prison for a year because he provided an internet connection. It’s incomprehensible to him,” said Samuelson.

Samuelson added that he plans to file an appeal as soon as possible, as did Jonas Nilsson, the attorney for Fredrik Neij.

While Friday’s ruling is an important step in clarifying some of the legal issues associated with the distribution of copyrighted material in the digital age, it is by no means the final word.

With an expected appeal by the defendants, the case may eventually be heard by Sweden’s Supreme Court, with a detour through the European Court of Justice also a possibility, according to many experts.

Either way, it will likely be several years before a final ruling in the case is reached, by which time today’s bitTorrent technology may very well have been replaced by a new method for sharing files on the internet.

Source: http://www.thelocal.se/18908.html

iGro4Me · Apr 19, 2009

Plenty of options still abound.....BUT it does suck that these guys went down.

TrainMan · Apr 19, 2009

I thought it was funny how BBC posted a story about these guys getting convicted right when the "pirates" in somalia shit was going down...just looked so funny that the story labeled them both pirates...

It's crazy, these fools never even hosted files, they gave links to files..but its their activism that got them in trouble....I'm on their side, fuck the music industry...

music is art not cash flow

Wacky Tobacky · Apr 19, 2009

its pretty much BS. its all political. i mean they provided an infrastructure where people broke copy right infringements. they didn't break any laws. i mean do you lock up the people that make the highway cause people speed on it? do you lock up the owner of a motel cause there's guys selling drugs out of the one of the rooms? NO but that's what happened here.

D.I.trY · Apr 19, 2009

I saw some tv interview on the news with some music industry mogul who was furious that the "theft" of artists goes on unchalenged, as he put it. I wonder if he feels any guilt over his supernormal profits from an artists work whilst the artist gets a tiny fraction of the profits. I guess when u have 5 mansions around the world you get even more greedy. These record companies can fuck off.

SomeGuy · Apr 20, 2009

"By providing a website with ... well-developed search functions, easy uploading and storage possibilities, and with a tracker linked to the website, the accused have incited the crimes that the filesharers have committed," the court said in a statement to the media.

The court added that the four "knew that copyrighted material was being fileshared."

Every ISP on the planet is guilty too then.

They provided people with access to get to TPB in the first place, and they know that this sort of thing happens.

They need to start dragging them into court as co defendants and see how far they get with that.

TrainMan · Apr 20, 2009

they will never stop bit torrent...of course...the people who have a bunch of money and want to keep that cash flow coming are going to be pissed but shit mang...if the music is good it still will sell and people will make money...stop raping people...that's the moto across the board...just rape people so you can get paid...fuckd up

de Toke-ville · Apr 20, 2009

I don't know enough about the specifics of this case to have an opinion about how just or unjust this criminal proceeding was. But I have a question:

Why should an artist be compelled to give his or her work away for free?

I understand why they might want to and why perhaps they should, but i don't understand they have to.

IMHO, when people start to feel entitled to the fruits of someone else's labor because they are popular or have made enough money in the opinion of some, no one is safe. All you need to do is adjust your justifications a little and you can take anything you want from anybody at anytime--not a a place I would prefer to live.

While I believe that record companies were way too slow to adapt to the new digital environment and are now trying to put the toothpaste back into the tube--and are acting like a bunch of douchebags--AND i have enjoyed many illegal recordings in my lifetime on all the media formats available for the last four decades, I just don't pretend that I was Entitled to them or that it was not stealing--'cause it was.

-dTv

itsjustaride · Apr 20, 2009

"We cant pay i wouldnt pay i'd rather burn everything i owned and i wouldnt even give them the ashes"

was the official piratebay statement on the matter LOL

TrainMan · Apr 20, 2009

de Toke-ville said:
I just don't pretend that I was Entitled to them or that it was not stealing--'cause it was.

-dTv

if the music was good, do you not go out and buy the record anyways?

I don't feel entitled. but it's art, I see how artists need to eat, but come on, they have the tour revenue and merchandise sales...if the music is above par, they are going to be alright.

When you buy a CD, you are paying for the physical medium(case,disc, album cover). Not to mention all of the mark up that comes from production and then the retail markup.

I think the music industry is pissed because stores like walmart can't sell cd's to save their lives. Domino effect it is. Can't say that if I was making that kind of loot that I would be to happy either but look at the flip side. The artists should be stoked that more people have the chance to hear their music. IF the music is special and worth something then the artist shouldn't give a fuck. Now you look at the cats who make music for money, they are going to be pissed. Honestly I don't care about them or their hack music. The artist will probably give a damn if the record company cuts it's royalty, which means artist and fan gets screwed.

Piracy is just something that 'they' can't control. We all know what that leads to. The internet is the last free place. people have spoken

Stoner4Life · Apr 20, 2009

TrainMan said:
I don't feel entitled. but it's art, I see how artists need to eat, but come on, they have the tour revenue and merchandise sales...if the music is above par, they are going to be alright.

I'll bet if you could go online and steal concert tickets & T-shirts you would, so now what?

FreezerBoy · Apr 21, 2009

The sense of undeserved entitlement here is disgusting.

TrainMan said:
music is art not cash flow

Bullshit!

Music is business and stealing is stealing. If you want to be a thief, go ahead but at least have the decency to admit you're stealing food from the mouths of artist's children.

Wacky Tobacky said:
i mean do you lock up the people that make the highway cause people speed on it? do you lock up the owner of a motel cause there's guys selling drugs out of the one of the rooms? NO but that's what happened here.

Roads are not built for speeders. Motels are not made for drug dealers. Pirate Bay was specifically made for thieves to steal with. That's it's sole function.

de Toke-ville said:
Why should an artist be compelled to give his or her work away for free?

What? A voice of reason? Pardon me while I have a heart attack.

southpaw · Apr 21, 2009

FreezerBoy said:
Bullshit!

Music is business and stealing is stealing. If you want to be a thief, go ahead but at least have the decency to admit you're stealing food from the mouths of artist's children.

Way to amp up the melodrama.

You can't experience all the benefits of the information age with none of it's drawbacks. Musicians today can generate interest and demand with unprecedented ease. If they are good, or at least if a large swath of the younger global population thinks they are good, they will be rewarded handsomely monetarily.

The percentage they lose behind internet "corruption" comes with the territory.

So yes, I have stolen food from the mouths of an artist's children. And it sounded wonderful.

TrainMan · Apr 21, 2009

who ever said artists didn't make better music while they were struggling?

SomeGuy · Apr 22, 2009

Music is business and stealing is stealing. If you want to be a thief, go ahead but at least have the decency to admit you're stealing food from the mouths of artist's children.

I make a point to only steal from artists that have no children...

That's it's sole function.

There's plenty of non copyright material available through torrents. Some would say its a byproduct but it does have uses for disseminating information.
For instance download a copy of Vuze and you'll see what can be done with torrents without ever visiting the bay or any torrent site that hosts torrents for copyrighted material.

The Pirate Bay conviction

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