AfterDawn: News

Swedish appeals court rejects claim Pirate Bay judge was biased

The judge who presided over the now infamous Pirate Bay trial was not biased according to a ruling from Sweden's Court of Appeals.

Defense lawyers alleged Judge Tomas Norstrom's membership in multiple organizations which advocate increasing the scope of copyright law should have disqualified him from hearing the Pirate Bay case. Although they were critical of Norstrom for failing to disclose these associations earlier, appellate court judges disagreed that there was any bias.



"We have reached the conclusion that we do not agree with the conflict of interest claim," said appeals court judge Anders Eka.

Christian Engström of the Pirate Party, who was recently elected to represent Sweden in the European Parliament, was critical of the decision. He said "This is part of a pattern. It show that the Swedish legal system is no longer to be trusted when it comes to copyright cases. It's a travesty of justice quite simply."

An appeal of the guilty verdict is still ongoing, but it may be years before a final decision is reached.

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 25 Jun 2009 19:23

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• 6 comments

• beanos66

  a group of judges finds in favour of a judge...
  
  ...!big suprise!

  26.6.2009 01:45 #1

• jeff_2

  this just doesn't make sense anymore, there must be somthing bigger going on here

  26.6.2009 07:45 #2

• SgtDavis

  Originally posted by jeff_2: this just doesn't make sense anymore, there must be somthing bigger going on hereBeing a judge has almost as much to do with politics as being a politician. The more and more these companies get shelled by piracy groups and individuals, the more the judges & other lawmakers are going to find themselves in the cross hairs. Looks to me like they took the safe option, even if their decision was BS.

  26.6.2009 16:06 #3

• Josipher

  maybe its just me..but the last bit of the article kinda made me smile
  Quote: it may be years before a final decision is reached.
  good! let it take 5 years for all i care. as long as its still going the servers will continue working and for the meantime we can all be happy

  26.6.2009 23:20 #4

• xtago

  LoL, I find it quite funny.
  
  The people behind TPB got hit with a fine for helping people to pirtae files, which is a part of the copyright laws in countries.
  
  Now they can't hack having to pay a fine or the jail time now they are trying to sue for any reason, the idot's even showed the judge how to do the stuff as well, because they thought they were getting done for having pirate files on the server.
  
  Of caurse the appeal will have been chucked out because they need to prove they aren't helping people to pirate files.
  
  Whats happened for those who don't understand is that they have to prove people havn't been getting access to pirate files from the servers they own, which they are.

  27.6.2009 22:24 #5

• Jemborg

  Originally posted by jeff_2: this just doesn't make sense anymore, there must be somthing bigger going on hereYa think???
  

  Its a lot easier being righteous than right.
  
  
  

  28.6.2009 13:48 #6