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[crosbystillsstash]

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Torrent trial begins for Pirate Bay file-sharing accused
10:58AM Tuesday Feb 17, 2009
Louise Nordstrom



Pirate Bay founders Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde arrive at a Stockholm court for their copyright trial. Photo / AP
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Guilty by accusation copyright protestors paint it black
STOCKHOLM - Demonstrators waved the Jolly Roger outside a Stockholm court yesterday as four men linked to popular file-sharing site The Pirate Bay rejected copyright infringement charges and claims for damages by film and music companies.

All four pleaded innocent as the trial - much awaited by file-sharing enthusiasts and the entertainment industry - got under way amid intense media coverage at the Stockholm District Court.

The defendants are accused of breaking Swedish copyright law by helping internet users download protected music, movies and computer games for free.

Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, 28, Peter Sunde, 30, Fredrik Neij, 30, and Carl Lundstrom, 48, say they haven't done anything illegal because The Pirate Bay doesn't host copyrighted material. Instead, it directs users to content through so-called torrents.

With an estimated 22 million users, The Pirate Bay is the biggest site of its kind in the world, and comparable to file-sharing sites such as Grokster and Kazaa, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.


Prosecutor Hakan Roswall claims the defendants broke the law by providing the tools to share copyright protected material.

"They have among other things encouraged other people's copyright infringement," Roswall said in his opening arguments.

The Pirate Bay's supporters have mobilised for the trial. About 20 of them waved black skull-and-crossbones flags outside the court, Swedish media reported. Others were sending a live audio feed from the court proceedings on a special website dedicated to the trial.

The quartet is formally charged with accessory and conspiracy to break the copyright law. If convicted, they face up to two years in prison.

They are also facing 120 million kronor (NZ$27.1 million) in claims for compensation and damages from music and movie companies including Warner Bros Entertainment, MGM Pictures, Colombia Pictures Industries, 20th Century Fox Films, Sony BMG, Universal and EMI.

The case focuses on dozens of works that the prosecutor claims were downloaded illegally, including music by the Beatles, Robbie Williams and Coldplay and movies such as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and season one of the TV show Prison Break.

Three of the defendants administer the site, while Lundstrom helped finance it.

The case stems from May 31, 2006, when police raided ten locations in central Sweden, seizing servers and computer equipment and temporarily shutting down the site.

- AP

Prosecutor Hakan Roswall

Good name.

[blade]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/feb/17/pirate-bay-internet

Pirate Bay triumphant as prosecution drops half of charges

Prosecutors drop most serious charges against The Pirate Bay on only the second day of trial in Sweden


The prosecution has dropped the most serious charges against the irreverent Swedish filesharing service The Pirate Bay on only the second day of its trial for assisting widespread copyright infringement.

After being unable to prove in court that illegally distributed files had used The Pirate Bay site � despite clear markers in the files, which are labelled with the Pirate Bay name � the prosecution, representing a swathe of high-profile music and film companies including Warner Bros, MGM, Universal and EMI � had to abandon almost half the charges.

Co-defendant Fredrik Neij said that prosecutor H�kan Roswall had misunderstood the technology and that his evidence did not implicate The Pirate Bay.

The prosecution then had to drop all charges relating to "assisting copyright infringement", leaving the lesser charges of "assisting making available copyrighted content", with Roswall adding that "everything related to reproduction will be removed from the claim".

Per Samuelson, the lawyer representing the defence, claimed the prosecutor's slip-up was a sensation. "It is very rare to win half the target in just one and a half days, and it is clear that the prosecutor took strong note of what we said yesterday," he commented, referring to an earlier comment that supplying a service that can be used illegally is not in itself illegal.

The prosecution immediately down played the setback, claiming that dropping the charges related to copying copyrighted works would simplify the case against The Pirate Bay.

"It's a largely technical issue," said Peter Danowsky, legal counsel for the music companies that brought the case.

"It changes nothing in terms of our compensation claims and has no bearing whatsoever on the main case against The Pirate Bay. In fact it simplifies the prosecutor's case by allowing him to focus on the main issue, which is the making available of copyrighted works."

The Pirate Bay does not host content itself, but indexes files hosted by users of the peer-to-peer filesharing tool BitTorrent. Users search the site to find the files they want, and then download them directly from other users' machines.

The site, based in Sweden, has been a persistent thorn in the side of the big media companies since it launched in 2003, already dodging one legal threat and repeatedly baiting what it what it sees as an outdated industry.

"It's not defending the technology," said co-defendant Peter Sunde in a press conference.

"It's more like defending the idea of the technology and that's probably the most important thing in this case � the political aspect of letting the technology be free and not controlled by an entity which doesn't like technology."

[crosbystillsstash]

cool. Thanks for the update.

[Demophobe]

Pirate Bay: we don't know nothin' about org charts, contracts

[Demophobe]

Pirate Bay Defense Calls Foul Over Evidence

[SHANE02]

funny

[chickenpie]

King Kong defense kicks arse

[red_devil]

Even if it does become illegal to host torrents, people can still use bittorrent to go directly peer to peer. Also, there'd be no way to really enforce this (unless they get ISP's to massively agree to install the tracking software) - as torrent hosting servers could pick up and go anywhere, not to mention they could start hosting them through servers in China or somewhere where it's nearly impossible to get any kind of international litigation. So this trial like all the others is pretty much a dog and pony show. The cops flexing their muscles for the world to oooh and ahhhh.

[SHANE02]

In NZ nanny state is trying ti make a new law that would force ISPs to disconnect and deny service to those downloading copyrighted material.
Good luck cave men

God bless cheap highspeed internet with no data caps.

[wormholes101]

Prosocution: You have identified that there are certain piracy groups that have released the works in these cases�

Defense: �not identified, but it appears to be that way.

Prosocution: Do these [warez] groups typically hire The Pirate Bay�s services?

lol

http://torrentfreak.com/anakata-explains-in-court-how-the-scene-works-090220/

Defense ends the first week partying.
http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-ends-first-trial-week-partying-090221/

[itaewonguy]

[SHANE02]

Yes, shouldn't makers of dvd-r, fiber optic cable, ram, HDDs, CPUs and eveything else be sued. Without these companies we couldn't downlaod the latest Hollywood POS movie.

[Chuvok]

There are hundreds of sites just like The Pirate Bay. And most of the torrents are shared amongst them all.

The infection has taken over the body!

[Dude Ranch]

What are the laws in south korea regarding downloading copyrighted material via bit torrent, p2p, etc?

[SHANE02]

Korea has sites where they actually charge you for the same things you can get free elsewhere. The speed is fast, movies come with subs.

It's pretty much open slather as long as you don't download Korean stuff probably.

There was someone here who got a warning from their ISP, maybe Superhero, maybe someone else.