The Pirate Bay - busted ?

[Brown Sauce]

I'm sure that this is not the end ... of the bay, or checking out flims and cd's before deciding that they're crap ..

[faceless]

That's a shock that they've been sentenced to a year each and a big fine. The last I heard of the case was that a big chunk of it had been dropped...

Still, it just goes to show how 'unlawful' it is that even after tens/hundreds of millions of downloads, they were given only one year in prison. The guy's running it will have their fines paid off by donations and be out in 6 months with a large chunk of cash in their pockets. Not a bad deal all in.

[faceless]

Via Gizmodo:

Pirate Bay Judge Linked With Copyright Lobby, Faces Accusations of Bias

Tomas Norström, the judge who sentenced the Pirate Bay Four, was recently outed as a member of two copyright advocacy organizations, prompting rumblings about a mistrial.

Some Swedish attorneys believe that Norström's membership of the Swedish Copyright Association and the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (where he is a board member) represent a full-on conflict of interest, a charge that, naturally, he denies. I won't pretend to know whether or not these accusations constitute full-on shenanigans (legal term!) under Swedish law, but the fact that a juror on the case was dismissed for membership in the same organizations should raise a few eyebrows.

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well well well! A mistrial definitely..

[faceless]

Showbiz lawyers push to have Pirates gagged
19 May 09
thelocal.se

Four American record companies want a Swedish court to bar three of the men convicted in the Pirate Bay trial from speaking out about the case and have requested the men be fined as long as the file sharing site keeps operating. Last week, the Danowsky Partners law firm filed documents with the Stockholm District Court on behalf of the Swedish affiliates of the Universal, EMI, Sony and Warner record companies urging the court to start fining Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde if The Pirate Bay site isn’t taken offline.

Also named in the motion was Black Internet AB, the website hosting company cited in the document as providing The Pirate Bay’s internet services. The filing also requests that the fines apply even before the District Court rules on the request and that Neij, Svartholm Warg, and Sunde be barred from speaking out on the matter until the case has had a final verdict in the Swedish court system.

When contacted by The Local for further comment, Olof Roos, an attorney with Danowsky Partners handling the case, refused to elaborate on the filing. “All I’m going to say is that I have no comment,” he told The Local. The motion refers to The Pirate Bay as an “Infringement Service” (Intrångstjänsten) which allows people to unlawfully access copyright protected material belonging to the companies.

The same court previously convicted three individuals named in the motion, along with a fourth man, Carl Lundström, for being accessories to copyright infringement, sentencing them to one year in prison and ordering them to pay a damages claim of 30 million kronor ($3.56 million). “Despite the outcome of the criminal case, the Infringement Service continues to be accessible via the internet, which continually causes harm to [the record companies] (and their rights holders),” reads the motion.

The four men convicted in the case have since filed an appeal, and on Tuesday it was revealed that the judge who will be hearing the case, Ulrika Ihrfelt, had previously been a member of the Swedish Copyright Association (Svenska Föreningen för Upphovsrätt). Membership in the same association in part led to bias allegations to be raised against Tomas Norström, the judge who heard the case in the District Court.

André Rickardsson, an expert in IT-security, told the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper he was surprised the record companies have requested the The Pirate Bay operators be fined. “Swedish law applies in Sweden, their internet service isn’t in Sweden. I don’t understand why the Swedish district court has anything to do with this. The Pirate Bay operates in countries where the activity is permitted,” he told DN. “They’re reacting like bulls in a china shop and aren’t going to generate any sympathy in the matter.”

[faceless]

[TheCaptain]

There are certain big record companies going down the pan, but it has nothing to do with the mp3 scene. They just can't cope with a free market.

They are so used to controlling corrupt media like the press and radio through bribes and intimidation, they are shit scared of the torrent scene allowing people to listen to what they want to.

They closed Suprnova through violence, they think they can close The Pirate Bay with the aid of a bent judge (oh, what a wonderful role model they are...). But even if they do, the hydra will spawn another head.

They need to EARN their money and think of a new business model that embraces new technology. If they don't they will die and artists will deal directly with consumers.

[funkyfunkpants]

[faceless]

Court affirms jail time for Pirate Bay founders
26 Nov 10
thelocal.se

Three of the men behind The Pirate Bay file sharing site have had their convictions upheld by a Swedish court of appeal. All three of the men have been sentenced to prison, although their terms have been reduced from those initially handed down by the lower court.

Fredrik Neij was sentenced to 10 months in prison, Peter Sunde to eight months and financial banker Carl Lundström to four months. In addition, the court of appeal increased the compensation the defendants are required to pay up to 46 million kronor ($6.57 million). Lawyers for the entertainment industry had requested damages of 120 million kronor.

"This is wrong, this is just really wrong. Now it's time for the Swedish legal system to shape up a little bit about what they think and believe about the world. This is just reprehensible, totally and utterly reprehensible," Sunde told the TT news agency. Ludvig Werner, chair of the Swedish arm of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), called the verdict "an extremely clear signal."

In April 2009, the Stockholm District Court convicted Sunde, Neij, Lundström and fellow Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg of facilitating copyright violations. Each man was sentenced to one year in prison. They were also ordered to pay a total of 30 million kronor in damages.

The appeals court didn't review the case against Svartholm Warg because he was sick in a hospital in Cambodia during the trial. He is set to receive a new trial at a later date.

The court of appeal ruled that evidence showed that the three men charged in the case had been involved in facilitating illegal filesharing. However, the court disagreed with the district court's reasoning in making the compensation claim a collective matter for all of the defendants, which meant that they all carried responsibility for everything done within the framework of The Pirate Bay. Instead, the appeals court ordered an individualised assessment, where each one is held accountable for the actions they themselves carried out.

"This is positive news, naturally, because the appeal and the district court result are so similar," said Werner. He pointed to other sites that carry out similar activities and hopes they will also consider what the ruling entails.

Werner was also pleased that the damages claim was increased by more than 50 percent. Monique Wadsted, an attorney representing American record companies, was pleased with the ruling. "It's a relief that the court of appeal finally affirmed that if you carry out this type of activity, you'll go to prison," she told TT. "In two years, this type of piracy will be over. After a ruling like this and all the pioneers start to get older and have children and families, piracy won't occur to this extent."

While Christian Engström, a member of the European Parliament representing the Pirate Party, called the ruling "depressing," he disputed whether the ruling would affect file sharing. "The judgement has no meaning for file sharing. It has continued to increase from year to year and the technical capabilities continue to develop," he told TT.

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A sad day indeed.

[luke]

anyone got a working link to kickass now?

[Brown Sauce]

More than 24 hours have passed since The Pirate Bay was raided by Swedish police. While it's still unclear how hard the site was hit, not everyone is mourning its troubles. Many of the people who built up the site are happy to see it gone, former spokesperson Peter Sunde included.
Peter, often referred to as one of Pirate Bay’s co-founders, wrote about his sentiments in a recent blog post.



kickass.so

[Bob]

Isohunt.co has put up a bit of a bay skin to it...not as convenient though, nor is kickass, but they'll have to do.

[luke]

looks like its returned;

http://thepiratebay.com.ua/

[Brown Sauce]

I don't think that it has Luke. There are a lot of fake copies that will steal login details, not so much of a problem for the most of us, but if your user name is yify it's a different affair altogether.
http://torrentfreak.com is where to go to catch the latest news, and isohunt.to have setup an open piratebay source code repository so that anyone clever or stupid enough can make their very own piratebay site.