Pirate Bay Founders Arrrr Guilty
A ruling from a Swedish court was given today on the case that was brought against the founders of Pirate Bay by many of the big giants in the recording industry. Turns out the founders were found guilty and charged with one year of jail time as well as $4.7 million in damages to pay. The verdict partially came as a surprise to the defendants, the founders of Pirate Bay, since they argued the fact that their servers never held any of the copyrighted material and therefore were not breaking any copyright laws. Peter Sunde, one of the founders, had this to say about the verdict:
"It's serious to actually be found guilty and get jail time. It's really serious. . . 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."
So it seems like the verdict is currently a big win for the record companies who fear the effects that music file torrents has on their bottom line. The verdict also indicates that a program that can be used for malicious purposes, such as the torrenting of copyrighted material, can have legal repercussions on the makers of that software and/or system if they are knowledgeable about its illegal use; however, the founders of Pirate Bay are not going to be walking the plank just yet, one of their lawyers told the press that the verdict is:
". . . outrageous, in my point of view. Of course we will appeal. . . This is the first word, not the last. The last word will be ours."
Court jails Pirate Bay founders [BBC]
PixelPoet
Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 17 April 2009
· Comments (1)
Other stuff like this: bbc, guilty, piracy, pirate bay, recording industry, torrents, verdict
Turns out the founders won't actually get any jail time yet since they're going to appeal and take it to a higher court in Sweeden. Because of this it would take another 4-5 years till they would know for sure of any jail time.
Best of luck to them though to keep fighting the good fight!