AfterDawn: News

Internet piracy trial against The Pirate Bay begins

The Internet piracy trial brought forward by Sweden against the admins of the infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay is set to begin today and with it comes the fate of the world's largest public tracker.

Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundstroem are each accused of "promoting violations by other people of laws protecting royalties," and are being sued for $17.6 million USD in damages by representatives of the music, movie and video game industries.



"It's not a political trial, it's not the trial that has as its purpose to shut down some kind of people's library or to prohibit any file-sharing technique," added Monique Wadsted, a lawyer for the Hollywood studios.

"It's a trial that regards four persons that have conducted the commercial activity, earning a lot of money in providing the possibility for others to make pirate copies of big commercial productions, movies, music and popular computer games."

If convicted, each of the admins could face up to two years in prison and large fines, as well as the shutdown of the site.

Prosecutors have claimed that the site makes $4 million USD a year, however Sunde says the site is a money losing operation.

Interested parties are reminded that some audio from the trial will be streamed online for free.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Feb 2009 2:40

• Previous article

• Apple sued again over iPhone

• Next article

• Netflix reaches 10 million subscribers

• 24 comments

• joebloe12

  This ought to be interesting.....

  16.2.2009 02:45 #1

• Jhult

  Now this will definitely be interesting. Most notably due to the fact that they are suing them over the fact that their official statement says that they are being sued due to the act of "Providing the possibility for others to make pirate copies of big commercial productions, movies, music and popular computer games.". I mean if I just read that right, does that not mean that the producers of such things to begin with were also providing the material to be stolen in the first place? I mean the claim can be broadly applied to anyone who has a DVD burner or CD-ROM burner who has proper copying programs does it not?

  16.2.2009 02:48 #2

• dcity

  Even if they do go down, they've still got a hundred more to go, and lets not forget the file hosting sites aswell. i think the MPAA -(and so on) are fighting losing battle here!
  
  And i dont know why they keep telling us that downloading music, games, films etc is stealing... its not stealing, its called "sharing" if it was called stealing, why would the owner upload it to the internet for evryone else to download in the first place?! I think they need t get their prospective right about this!!! *Deep Breaths*
  
  I personaly hope The Pirate Bay somehow does win the trial, as it'll be a milestone to show that the MPAA -(and so on) are losing.

  16.2.2009 03:56 #3

• plazma247

  http://www.blogpirate.org/tpb-trial-feed/

  16.2.2009 05:06 #4

• domie

  no particular strong viewpoint one way or the other but this caught my eye : -
  Quote:Prosecutors have claimed that the site makes $4 million USD a year, however Sunde says the site is a money losing operation. that explains how the owners were only able to afford one luxury penthouse apartment each in Stockholm and why they only have 5 other houses between them scattered around Europe. Times must be hard when you only make 4 million a year.
  
  either way, no point arguing about it - the truth will come out in the trial.

  16.2.2009 06:38 #5

• jeff_2

  What i would pay to be that court room

  16.2.2009 06:40 #6

• plazma247

  you would have thought that they could o forked out on a better looking bus, omg it looks like the one used in on the buses in the 1970's lol

  16.2.2009 06:40 #7

• spydah

  No matter the outcome. If TPB goes down, there will be more sites in it's place to re-appear. Or as in what's already happened. They'll go down and they'll be back better than before. The MPAA and RIAA do this just to annoy their selves I swear.

  16.2.2009 11:53 #8

• spydah

  What meant to put in my last post is, if you follow the file sharing trend. All this stuff does it make the sharing technology evolve. There most likely in the future will be a better way to share that they won't know enough about until it's to big just its always been.

  16.2.2009 11:55 #9

• Kaije

  i don't know about you guys, but the fate of my entertainment lies in this trial.

  16.2.2009 12:45 #10

• windsong

  Originally posted by Kaije: i don't know about you guys, but the fate of my entertainment lies in this trial.What is wrong with ISOhunt? Emule? Usenet? Other misc P2p? Ive never understood why pirate bay is as popular as it is. Ive gotten maybe a gigs worth over the years from them, and even then only if its uber rare stuff I couldn't get anywhere else. What is it about pirate bay that makes it the best? Trackers, users, or content?
  
  Though I admit emule probably isn't many peoples favorite on account of files taking so long to download, and USenet, well..it does help if you shell out 15 a month for a premium usenet provier like Giga. Or perhaps Pirate Bay is for the most part appealing to the under-18 crowd who don't want to wade through the endless list of newsgroup readers to find one suited to them?
  
  Mystery.

  16.2.2009 14:18 #11

• spydah

  Quote:Originally posted by Kaije: i don't know about you guys, but the fate of my entertainment lies in this trial.What is wrong with ISOhunt? Emule? Usenet? Other misc P2p? Ive never understood why pirate bay is as popular as it is. Ive gotten maybe a gigs worth over the years from them, and even then only if its uber rare stuff I couldn't get anywhere else. What is it about pirate bay that makes it the best? Trackers, users, or content?
  
  Though I admit emule probably isn't many peoples favorite on account of files taking so long to download, and USenet, well..it does help if you shell out 15 a month for a premium usenet provier like Giga. Or perhaps Pirate Bay is for the most part appealing to the under-18 crowd who don't want to wade through the endless list of newsgroup readers to find one suited to them?
  
  Mystery.
  I agree. I barely use TPB at all. Maybe once or twice a year I used them on avg. But Newsgroups are my place of choice and private trackers.

  16.2.2009 14:22 #12

• thor999

  Do you take cash? LOL Those guys can afford twice that, trust me. And you know what? Fu%@ 'em 'cuz they don't monitor any of the trash thats frequently overpopulating our networks needlessly, and rarely is it the intended file anyways. They aren't pioneers, they're pimps.

  16.2.2009 23:39 #13

• Kaije

  Originally posted by windsong: Originally posted by Kaije: i don't know about you guys, but the fate of my entertainment lies in this trial.What is wrong with ISOhunt? Emule? Usenet? Other misc P2p? Ive never understood why pirate bay is as popular as it is. Ive gotten maybe a gigs worth over the years from them, and even then only if its uber rare stuff I couldn't get anywhere else. What is it about pirate bay that makes it the best? Trackers, users, or content?
  
  Though I admit emule probably isn't many peoples favorite on account of files taking so long to download, and USenet, well..it does help if you shell out 15 a month for a premium usenet provier like Giga. Or perhaps Pirate Bay is for the most part appealing to the under-18 crowd who don't want to wade through the endless list of newsgroup readers to find one suited to them?
  
  Mystery.nothing's wrong with them i guess. new to the whole torrent thing so if mininova doesn't have it, i go to pirate bay. but don't you think that if the trial is a success for the prosecution, that it will eventually lead to more trials to come? granted, it will be difficult, but if one becomes a success, it could make it easier to follow through with more.

  17.2.2009 02:02 #14

• Mez

  spydah, much of what is on ISOhunt and mininova is provided by PB.
  
  dcity, are they fighting a losing battle? I don't think so! Where have you been? They have regrouped and are working on more permanent ways to shut down P2P. They have already changed laws in maybe a dozen countries making P2P illegal. These changes are so common they are not news ay more. I am guessing by the end of this year P2P will be illegal in most countries and P2P as we know it will be DEAD! There has been a massive infusion of money into the anti-P2P. I would guess there has been more than 100 times as much money spent on anti-P2P in the last 6 months than in the last 10 years. The amonut of money being spent is probably still accelerating. The attacks will be comming from new vectors as well as old. All attacks will be much better funded than in the old days.
  
  I am sure P2P as we know it, is losing huge. I suspect the damage will be more apparent in a few months than it is now.
  
  That is my 2 cents.

  17.2.2009 08:52 #15

• Jemborg

  Well, I will be sorry to see TPB go. I don't mean to be pessimistic but unless these sites are willing to move OS... I mean AfterDawn chose to stay put and had to conform.
  
  My guess is we will see the rise of RapidShare and similar sites, now that search engines for such have evolved.

  17.2.2009 09:32 #16

• GernBlan

  Originally posted by Jhult: Now this will definitely be interesting. Most notably due to the fact that they are suing them over the fact that their official statement says that they are being sued due to the act of "Providing the possibility for others to make pirate copies of big commercial productions, movies, music and popular computer games.". I mean if I just read that right, does that not mean that the producers of such things to begin with were also providing the material to be stolen in the first place? I mean the claim can be broadly applied to anyone who has a DVD burner or CD-ROM burner who has proper copying programs does it not?What about all the people who manufacturer DVD and CD burners? iPod owners? Apple? Dell? DVD/CD media manufacturers? Where does it end? Pirate Bay will win his suit because what's next? Shouldn't they be going after Al Gore? Afterall, he "invented the internet" and no one could do any of this stuff without the internet.
  
  This is nothing but legal thugging, where someone with a lot of money and time pays a lawyers a lot of money to financially ruin someone -- not necessarily to win the case...just to give lawyers a lot of money, because they know that they can afford it and the accused typically can't.

  17.2.2009 13:00 #17

• mumra1st

  This is all a perfect example of why the world is in a recession - greed. Overpaid movie stars, producers, agents, directors etc. all at the expense of the public. If they weren't so greedy they would charge a reasonable amount to view the product and there would be no need to try and subvert the system. What is the difference between taping a show from tv to be viewed later and downloading a movie from a 'friend' to watch later. If I buy a dvd and watch with friends that is illegal according to the industry. If I lend it to my brother that is illegal. Fortunately the judges can see through this one and have made a profit necessary to consider this illegal. So as long as you are not selling the product you should be able to download for say a $.50 to view at home. The movie producers etc would still make a small fortune with each and every movie they produce as well as songs etc. There should be a cap on the percentage of profit that they are allowed to make. I personally know of singers who are constantly ripped off by music producers and receive very little return for their work - most of it siphoned off by the leeches living off their creativity. Go PB - I hope they win. what a message that would be.

  17.2.2009 15:10 #18

• Damon666

  Good Luck to Pirate bay and other share sites. I am a user and I frequently share and download music mainly. If I like it, I usually go and buy the cd / dvd after downloading - if I have some obscure stuff then I like to share. If I download and dont like it, I delete it. I am probably guilty of keeping some files I have not gone out a bought as they are either not available in my country or too damn expensive to buy on my budget. yes I could be seen as a thief, however, I do also feel it promotes as much as it harms. I have downloaded cinema released movies online and actually gone out and bought the dvd when it comes out. Not all of us have access to the cinema but are very inquisitive about seeing the movie - even when the quality is shocking!! Sorry if you disagree.

  17.2.2009 16:00 #19

• apd06

  PB is a search engine just like google.
  
  If I googled any word ending in torrent google would bring up page after page of file sharing crap.
  
  PB FTW if not then the internet is only good for msn and pron

  17.2.2009 17:24 #20

• SHOU5

  This definitely would be interesting. Another plot by companies like the one in Sweden to step on the little guys.... Sue happy people!

  17.2.2009 19:59 #21

• shaken

  Well I suppose you could interpret the charges to pertain to Google or people with DVD burners, but The Pirate Bay is a direct link to loads of illegal activity. I bet 90% of torrent content is probably illegal to share... Its hard to defend these admins who obviously recognize their website is a direct gate to tons of pirated content. I would like to see them get off, but it'll be hard.
  But then again, is it illegal to tell somebody where to buy drugs, or how to make a simple explosive?
  
  I'm sure they saw this coming and set a bunch of money aside for a rainy day just like this.

  17.2.2009 20:34 #22

• kudzul33t

  Political or Criminal.....don't think they know yet
  
  
  ~ I was here ~

  20.2.2009 16:53 #23

• plazma247

  http://bambuser.com/channel/Spectrial?profile-tabs=broadcasts
  or
  http://bambuser.com/channel/Spectrial/br...ofile-tabs=user
  
  :) the other links i posted earlier at http://www.blogpirate.org/tpb-trial-feed/ has now been taken down.

  21.2.2009 18:54 #24