A court in Sweden has jailed four men behind The Pirate Bay (TPB), the world's most high-profile file-sharing website, in a landmark case. :UPDATE: IMPORTANT VIDEO RESPONSE FROM PETER SUNDE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8004359.stm Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde were found guilty of breaking copyright law and were sentenced to a year in jail. They were also ordered to pay $4.5m (£3m) in damages. Record companies welcomed the verdict but the men are to appeal and Sunde said they would refuse to pay the fine. Speaking at an online press conference, he described the verdict as "bizarre. "It's serious to actually be found guilty and get jail time. It's really serious. And that's a bit weird," Sunde said. "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." It is almost certain that The Pirate Bay will keep on sailing, long after today's court judgement Read more at the dot.life blog Q&A: Pirate Bay verdict The damages were awarded to a number of entertainment companies, including Warner Bros, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI, and Columbia Pictures. However, the total awarded fell short of the $17.5m in damages and interest the firms were seeking. Speaking to the BBC, the chairman of industry body the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) John Kennedy said the verdict sent out a clear message. "These guys weren't making a principled stand, they were out to line their own pockets. There was nothing meritorious about their behaviour, it was reprehensible. "The Pirate Bay did immense harm and the damages awarded doesn't even get close to compensation, but we never claimed it did. "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," he said. Pirate Bay"s first server The Pirate Bay's first server is now a museum exhibit in Stockholm The four men denied the charges throughout the trial, saying that because they did not actually host any files, they were not doing anything wrong. A lawyer for Carl Lundstrom, Per Samuelson told journalists he was shocked by the guilty verdict and the severity of the sentence. "That's outrageous, in my point of view. Of course we will appeal," he was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency. "This is the first word, not the last. The last word will be ours." Political issue Rickard Falkvinge, leader of The Pirate Party - which is trying to reform laws around copyright and patents in the digital age - told the BBC that the verdict was "a gross injustice". "This wasn't a criminal trial, it was a political trial. It is just gross beyond description that you can jail four people for providing infrastructure. Mark Mulligan from Forrester Research says what was different about Pirate Bay "There is a lot of anger in Sweden right now. File-sharing is an institution here and while I can't encourage people to break copyright law, I'm not following it and I don't agree with it. "Today's events make file-sharing a hot political issue and we're going to take this to the European Parliament." The Pirate Bay is the world's most high profile file-sharing website and was set up in 2003 by anti-copyright organisation Piratbyran, but for the last five years it has been run by individuals. Millions of files are exchanged using the service every day. No copyright content is hosted on The Pirate Bay's web servers; instead the site hosts "torrent" links to TV, film and music files held on its users' computers. Source
NNNNNOOOOOO!!! Oh that makes me very sadface. Plus I don't think they should jail them, its not like they uploaded the content, just made the site.
IMO this was very unjust to the four me. Now they get trialed however TPB Has Been Up for a long time now. Still Paying fines from every Music/Movie industry that is on the TBP is irrational, if they didnt want it then just delete the Original Files. No Fines or problems from the Swedish Government. And if they think that try to take down TPB will stop torrents of Music/Movies/Application/Etc, then there wrong in every sence.
If the music industry just learned to realize that piracy can't be stopped because copying will never get any harder, and if they decided that the best idea would be to change their business model so that everyone, even themselves, profit more from it, then we wouldn't have to hear this kind of crap about the MAFIAA suing people. But alas, they're too stubborn-minded to think that way. A few of the indie companies have got it right by setting up deals with the torrent sites to display ads for the CDs and other related content, but there's not enough right now.
I think it's stupid that they are prosecuting under US law when they operate in Sweden. I was very sadface also to hear this. =[
I don't get why people think they should get away from fines. The quote in Fbu's post explains why 3mil euros is such a BREAK. They should be paying hundreds of millions, because also think about the software like the Adobe CS1/2/3/4 that would easily get really expensive.
Also don't forget operating systems like Vista, and things, they lose a TON of money on that also, I mean TPB is a great resource... Site like that are good to find outdated stuff also that you can't buy no more.
death to pete waterman the fat old fart/mong dckhead goes on about them stealing the music, its file sharing dumbass >:|
Who do you think uploaded the first content? It was most likely these guys, and they are paying to maintain illegal activity. They are the ones putting supplying the plastic baggies for drugs. Accessories. A party to. They are punishable.
They are paying to maintain the illegal activity, but they are not taking part in it. Therefore they are not breaking the law.
What part of "Accessories. A party to. Punishable" didn't you understand? Like whisper said, you're incorrect.
No. Last time i checked they just provide links to the torrents, like google for torrents. Since somehow they are NOW available to get jailed just proves my believes that lawmakers make laws to suit the damn big labels. Who the **** cares? Im not gonna pay for something, now more then ever due iFail making the songs that are popular go up to $1.29, that doesn't even go directly to the artists. They should drop all the label bullshit make a wbsite where people ccan DL music and the ads pay to the ARTISTS to be on the website. Free, legal, music? FUKC YEAH!
Why isn't glad and ziploc in jail, because according to your logic, they are supplying the plastic baggies for drugs. Accessories. A party to.