The Pirate Bay "trial verdict"

[eye2i2hear]

Quote:The Pirate Bay Trial: The Official Verdict - Guilty
Written by enigmax on April 17, 2009

The verdict in the case of The Pirate Bay Four was announced. All four defendants were accused of ‘assisting in making copyright content available’. Peter Sunde: Guilty. Fredrik Neij: Guilty. Gottfrid Svartholm: Guilty. Carl Lundström: Guilty. The four receive 1 year in jail each and fines totaling $3,620,000.

While only a few weeks ago, it seems like an eternity since the trial of The Pirate Bay Four ended and the court retired to consider its verdict. The prosecution claimed that the four defendants were ‘assisting in making copyright content available’ and demanded millions of dollars in damages. The defense did not agree, and all pleaded not guilty - backed up by the inimitable King Kong defense.

Today, Friday April 17, the court issued its decision:

“The court has found that by using Pirate Bay’s services there has been file-sharing of music, films and computer games to the extent the prosecutor has stated in his case,” said the district court. “This file-sharing constitutes an unlawful transfer to the public of copyrighted performances.”

Peter Sunde (born September 13, 1978) alias ‘brokep’:
Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000

Peter Althin, brokep’s lawyer said, “I spoke to Peter and he wasn’t very surprised. A journalist he’d spoken to knew an hour before it was public that all four would be convicted. The verdict was leaked from the court. I have to think about what effects that can have on the sentence. It is unacceptable that the court is leaking.”

Fredrik Neij (born April 27, 1978) alias ‘TiAMO’:
Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000

Gottfrid Svartholm (October 17, 1984) alias ‘Anakata’:
Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000

Anakata’s lawyer Ola Salomonsson said, “We’re appealing. It’s very surprising that the court has chosen to treat the accused as a team.”

Carl Lundstrom
Carl Lundström (born April 13, 1960)
Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000

The court said that the four defendants worked as a team, were aware that copyrighted material was being shared using The Pirate Bay and that they made it easy and assisted the infringements. It categorized the infringements as ’severe’. The judge said that the users of The Pirate Bay committed the first offense by sharing files and the four assisted this.

While the court did not agree with the plaintiff’s exaggerated estimates of losses, it still set the damages at 30 million SEK ($3,620,000). This a hugely significant amount and the court has ordered that the four should pay this amount between them.

The judge also stated that the usage of BitTorrent at The Pirate Bay is illegal. Rest assured, other torrent sites hosted in Sweden will be keeping a close eye on developments.

The defense put it to the judge that he had folded under intense political pressure. The judge denied this stating that the court made its decision based on the case presented.

At one point the judge was asked if he was concerned for his personal safety after handing down this decision. The judge said he hadn’t received any harassment and was quite surprised at the question.

While the judge won’t be getting any flowers for this verdict, Roger Wallis who spoke in favor of The Pirate Bay at their trial and received a mountain of floral tributes in return, noted, “This will cause a flood of court cases. Against all the ISPs. Because if these guys assisted in copyright infringements, then the ISPs also did. This will have huge consequences. The entire development of broadband may be stalled.”

Peter Sunde characterized the verdict as ‘unreal’ and said that he didn’t expect the jail sentence. He briefly spoke with Fredrik and Gottfrid and all were surprised with this outcome. In response to the fines Peter said: “We can’t pay and we wouldn’t pay if we could. If I would have money I would rather burn everything I owned.”

Sunde has already explained that this decision does not mean the end of the line in this case. There will be an appeal which means we are still far away from the ultimate decision - possibly years away. Any appeal from either side must be submitted to Sweden’s higher Court by 9th May 2009.

Rasmus Fleischer, one of the founders of Piratbyrån commented, “The sentence has no formal consequence and no juridical value. We chose to treat the trial as a theater play and as such it’s been far better than we ever could have believed.”

As for the fate of the site, Peter has already promised that The Pirate Bay will continue. The site itself was never on trial, only the four individuals listed above.

[right]---source[/right]

AKA more of the all smoke & mirrors --except for the gun in the room.

[eye2i2hear]

[right][/right]

Quote:So, the dice courts judgement is here. It was lol to read and hear, crazy verdict.

But as in all good movies, the heroes lose in the beginning but have an epic victory in the end anyhow. That's the only thing hollywood ever taught us.

[right]---The Pirate Bay website, April 17[/right]

[eye2i2hear]

ah, ye ole notice of "bias"/"conflict of interest" (in this case, another overlook of the ultimate conflict: State religion belief)

Quote:Pirate Bay judge biased, retrial demanded
Posted on 23.04.2009 at 15:50 in Tech News by Martin

Less than a week after the Pirate Bay copyright trial ended with a guilty verdict, lawyers for the defense are calling for a retrial. Swedish radio station Sveriges Radio P3 news program revealed that Judge Tomas Norström holds close ties to pro-copyright organizations and his ruling may be considered a substantial conflict of interest. If it can be proven that Norström has a legitimate bias against the Pirate Bay Four based on his affiliations, there is a possibility the original verdict could be thrown out. Sveriges Radio reported that Norström is a member of the following pro-copyright or copyright-relevant organizations that may have impacted his decision-making abilities at the trial:

* The Swedish Association of Copyright, a discussion forum. While such an affiliation may seem harmless, other members of the organization include Henrik Pontén, Monique Wadsted, and Peter Danowsky — three key representatives in the entertainment industry’s case against Pirate Bay.
* The Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property, an organization devoted to implementing stronger copyright laws. Norström sits on the board.
* .SE, The Internet Infrastructure Foundation, another harmless-sounding affiliation with another questionable allegiance: Monique Wadsted is also a member of this group that oversees the .se name domain and handles domain disputes.

Peter Althin, the lawyer who represents Pirate Bay spokesperson Peter Sunde, told The Local that in setting up this case, several lay judges were thrown out due to conflicts of interest. That Norström somehow sneaked past this deletion process raised suspicion and anger in the defense team. [highlight=lightyellow]Norström claims that his decision was not colored by his associations. “My view has been that these activities do not constitute a conflict of interest,”[/highlight] he told Sveriges Radio. It’s evident that Judge Norström has strong ties to the pro-copyright lobby. I think he should have stepped down from the case in the beginning. That he didn’t shows a serious perversion of justice. Last Friday, Pirate Bay was sacked with a bill for 30 million Swedish kronor (US$3.6 million) and a one-year prison sentence for the Pirate Bay Four: Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström.

[right]Source: PC World[/right]

[right]---source[/right]