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.
Johan Nilsson, one of the defendants lawyers, said he was very surprised by the verdict and especially the massive amount of damages. He also stated that they will appeal to a higher court.
Personally I think they're going to lose in the second highest court aswell (Hovrätten) and that they will have to bring this to the supreme court so that they can make a legal precedent. The supreme court could potentially have a different view of this matter as the evidence are thin, to say the least, at some points in this case. Only time will tell as this is far from over.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8003799.stm
Video press conference courtesy of TPB:
http://thepiratebay.org/special/2009epicwinanyhow.php
Original Post:
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So I searched TL for a topic on this but nothing came up which I found kind of strange considering that many TL:ers (all?) are pirates to some extent. But anyway here's the deal:
On January 31, 2008, Swedish prosecutors filed charges against four of the individuals behind The Pirate Bay, a torrent tracking website, for "promoting other people's infringements of copyright laws" - From Wikipedia
Basically The Pirate Bay is being charged with "Assisting copyright infringement" or something of the sort. They were intially also charged with pirating themselves but those charges were dropped when it was proven that the material the prosecutors had could'nt be linked to the site or the tracker.
The case is the product of the raid the police did three years ago where they seized all the servers and alot of other stuff linked to the site.
This case is extremely big and it will probably take a long time before everything is said in the matter. No matter what side wins the other will appeal to a higher court for sure.
The defendants are the three original creators of the Pirate Bay and a business man with links to the site and they're being sued by some major entertainment companies (Universal, Sierra, Warner Bros, Blizzard, 20th Century Fox, etc, you get the picture). In total they are being sued for $13 million, and the 4 defendants are also potentially facing some prison time (though this is Sweden so they'll probably get like 5 minutes).
From what I've understood the prosecution does'nt really have much of a case and the only thing that has any chance of sticking is the fact that they make alot of money of the ads on the site, which is something even many filesharers have a problem with. There has been some controversy over the amounts they make though, some claim it to be in the millions but they themselves deny that and claims it to be just about enough to pay for bandwidth, servers etc.
In Sweden the trial is big news almost every day and it seems that many people here are rooting for TPB to come out on top which seems pretty likely at the moment considering the fact that the prosecution has already dropped half the charges.
So, dear TL what do you guys think? Charming Johnny Depp pirates or evil Captain Hook pirates
On January 31, 2008, Swedish prosecutors filed charges against four of the individuals behind The Pirate Bay, a torrent tracking website, for "promoting other people's infringements of copyright laws" - From Wikipedia
Basically The Pirate Bay is being charged with "Assisting copyright infringement" or something of the sort. They were intially also charged with pirating themselves but those charges were dropped when it was proven that the material the prosecutors had could'nt be linked to the site or the tracker.
The case is the product of the raid the police did three years ago where they seized all the servers and alot of other stuff linked to the site.
This case is extremely big and it will probably take a long time before everything is said in the matter. No matter what side wins the other will appeal to a higher court for sure.
The defendants are the three original creators of the Pirate Bay and a business man with links to the site and they're being sued by some major entertainment companies (Universal, Sierra, Warner Bros, Blizzard, 20th Century Fox, etc, you get the picture). In total they are being sued for $13 million, and the 4 defendants are also potentially facing some prison time (though this is Sweden so they'll probably get like 5 minutes).
From what I've understood the prosecution does'nt really have much of a case and the only thing that has any chance of sticking is the fact that they make alot of money of the ads on the site, which is something even many filesharers have a problem with. There has been some controversy over the amounts they make though, some claim it to be in the millions but they themselves deny that and claims it to be just about enough to pay for bandwidth, servers etc.
In Sweden the trial is big news almost every day and it seems that many people here are rooting for TPB to come out on top which seems pretty likely at the moment considering the fact that the prosecution has already dropped half the charges.
So, dear TL what do you guys think? Charming Johnny Depp pirates or evil Captain Hook pirates