QUOTE (sitepoint)
In the biggest case since Napster, a landmark ruling in a Swedish court has found The Pirate Bay guilty of copyright infringement by making 33 protected files accessible for illegal file sharing. Defence lawyers for Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde argued that they should be acquitted since The Pirate Bay does not host any files and simply provides a bit torrent search engine. The court ruled that all four defendants be sentenced to one year in jail and fined $4 million; an amount that will be shared amongst companies including 21st Century Fox, MGM, Columbia Pictures, Warner Brothers, Sony Music Entertainment, and EMI.
Although the award fell short of the $17.5 million the industry was claiming, John Kennedy, chairman the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said: There has been a perception that piracy is OK and that the music industry should just have to accept it. This verdict will change that. Pirate Bay founder Peter Sunde stated: It’s so bizarre that we were convicted at all and it’s even more bizarre that we were convicted as a team. The court said we were organised. I can’t get Gottfrid out of bed in the morning. If you’re going to convict us, convict us of disorganised crime. We can’t pay and we wouldn’t pay. Even if I had the money I would rather burn everything I owned, and I wouldn’t even give them the ashes.
The Pirate Bay’s founders will appeal against the ruling and the site remains active with the unusual home page message “Don’t worry - we’re from the internets. It’s going to be alright. :-)”. The Swedish authorities have no legal power to take the site down since it is hosted on various data centres around the world. It is unlikely the media companies will ever receive money but they have always insisted the case was about awareness and education.
Although the award fell short of the $17.5 million the industry was claiming, John Kennedy, chairman the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said: There has been a perception that piracy is OK and that the music industry should just have to accept it. This verdict will change that. Pirate Bay founder Peter Sunde stated: It’s so bizarre that we were convicted at all and it’s even more bizarre that we were convicted as a team. The court said we were organised. I can’t get Gottfrid out of bed in the morning. If you’re going to convict us, convict us of disorganised crime. We can’t pay and we wouldn’t pay. Even if I had the money I would rather burn everything I owned, and I wouldn’t even give them the ashes.
The Pirate Bay’s founders will appeal against the ruling and the site remains active with the unusual home page message “Don’t worry - we’re from the internets. It’s going to be alright. :-)”. The Swedish authorities have no legal power to take the site down since it is hosted on various data centres around the world. It is unlikely the media companies will ever receive money but they have always insisted the case was about awareness and education.
The Pirate Bay is probably the most well-known bit torrent tracker, so do you think this court decision will raise public awareness and decrease internet privacy? Or will this make The Pirate Bay even more popular?
