Court will jail Pirate Bay founders

[TVC_Colwal]

Well they were asking for it and finally they got it lol
LINK (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8003799.stm)

[TVC_NickUK]

However the piratebay is not going to be shutdown, I have recently been watching some interviews with them. The guys have already said "We have servers in other countries we do not know where they are" Which if the MPAA ask them to tell the MPAA where the servers are located they shall have a job.

Yes you can do tracerts but they can be hidden well.

I use TPB for legal applications the court got told that everything on TPB is illegal well that is incorrect. My linux laptop has quite a few torrent applications as a lot of Linux software is open source so i do prefer to share things other than just leech.

[gareth86]

I've been keeping an eye on this all day it's quite interesting. They have brought Google into the equation by saying TPB perform the same task as Google and someone could as easily find the torrent on google search. Which as far as I can see is a fair argument therefore getting Google sued too.. so maybe they have a way out. Makes it sound as if Google is some great force lol but that's not the point.

I'm far from experienced in this but I find this sort of stuff interesting (I mean legal etc..) but I tend to look at the simple side for now so correct me if i'm wrong lol.

[marcy]

I like this quote:
"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.
funny swedes, a lovely ol' bunch! :)

[Simtech76]

.. who would have thought it a swede taking a neutral stance 'saying that because they did not actually host any files, they were not doing anything wrong.'
:)

[breadfan]

More details here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8003799.stm) or here (http://www.slyck.com/story1849_The_Pirate_Bay_Guity_as_Charged) or here (http://www.slyck.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=46944) or here (http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-trial-the-verdict-090417/).

This could have big implications, the judge basically ruled on the "intent" of TPB to facilitate sharing, not on the technical copyright infringement issues. This means that ISPs could be held accountable, in similar terms, for their part in the whole infringement debate by allowing copyrighted material through their servers.

[sanjiv]

Its so interesting to see how chilled out the guys really are.

[tacoben]

I think behind the scenes the recording industry will not be that happy. One year in a swedish jail is no so bad and even if TPB claim to have no money I am quite sure they have a large stash.

[TVC_H4U]

Court jails Pirate Bay foundersNope, Their free walking around doing Live Internet Webcasts (http://thepiratebay.org/special/2009epicwinanyhow.php).
Sweeden has a funny legal system, thats primary school. They have to go to 2nd ary court, where their is more than one Judge the Mpaa have to fool.


I like this quote:
"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.
funny swedes, a lovely ol' bunch! :)
lol, That guy is funny. They are unorganised, none of them know who writes the letters to MPAA telling them that USA law does not count, bla bla..


Its so interesting to see how chilled out the guys really are.It sure is, Id be weary.
But it is only one year (if they get that), they are now famous, their project lives on, they have to pay back money they don't have. So it is quite funny!
They are in the history books, one of their web servers is in Sweden Museum!! Madness.

Technically, In Sweden I think they are innocent.
They are very naughty though and they know it.

[Josh]

I agree good on them and TBH it was hilarious about the ashes

[sanjiv]

The BBC have basically promoted TPB on the BBC News site. I wonder how much they're getting paid. :P

[Smasher]

I didn't understand how they said the industry had lost x billion as a result of illegal sharing.

That's on the shaky assumption that every single person who downloaded a film/music would otherwise have gone out and bought a copy.

[TVC_Admin]

Spoiler: If you are looking for hero worship of the Pirate Bay, something light to read before bed or l337 comments like "TPB Rock" then this isn't the post for you!

As a lawyer, who has actually represented both sides in real copyright cases at home and abroad, I have been rather uncharacteristically holding my own counsel over this whole juvenile fiasco. Largely because I am feeling both very smug and, at the same time, very sad.

Smug, because where even some of the most experienced legal pundits have seriously believed they would walk away without a blemish on their characters, I have always believed these fools certain to be convicted of criminal offences. To them I say "I told you so all along"

Sad, because this bunch of publicity hungry cowboys have raped the filesharing community and earned it a fearsome adverse precedent that fuels the anti-piracy effort and is almost certain to destroy filesharing using the BT protocol for good.

Make no doubt about it, the "boys" have been found guilty of serious criminal offences. Unless and until any higher court overturns that judgement on appeal (which looks extremely unlikely) they are simply out and out criminals. It's not an opinion, it's now official.

And as criminals are liable to account for the proceeds of their crimes, even in Sweden, those convicted of a crime are likely to forfeit any assets implicated in that crime. Even if they have no money, which very few (including the courts) believe for one second, they have a website, a name, a server farm and so forth, all of which were used in the commission of that crime. And sequestrating (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequestration)the proceeds of crime is a simple job of work for any forensic team, let alone the combined efforts of the international law enforcement agencies involved. God help them if they find any evidence of money laundering or false accounting, you will be able to add 5 years to those sentences.

Having been found guilty of a serious crime, that sequestration process will not be delayed by any pending appeal, not too mention a civil recovery action that has doubtless already been filed by the IFPI, the MPAA and so forth.

The Pirate Bay is a commercial pirate website. The police have investigated, the courts have upheld that to be the case and the operators have been convicted. These people who are claiming to be broke now have been coining it in from advertising, promoting scam download sites (downloadnova & usenext for goodness sake!) and donations from simple minded kids who believed their pocket money was going to be used to buy the old sea fort (Sealand) or an island where these fools could pretend they were kings of all they surveyed. Not too mention selling tee shirts, mugs, mouse mats and other tat that nobody would normally look at twice. The courts have estimated their income at around £1m a year, hence the level of their fine.

Their position was and always has been indefensible. They operate a third of the world's trackers, they've thumbed their noses at DMCA take-down notices and they have mocked the system whilst trying to claim the defence of safe harbour (or "mere conduit" as it is known under Eu law - better known as "the Google defence"). Unfortunately for them, Google do not provide trackers or facilitate uploading. neither do they mock take down notices and 99.9% of their content is legal anyway!

A quick scan of their available content revealed that over 99% of the files listed (and referenced per their own trackers) were infringing. Their "defence" wasn't comedic, it was tragic, especially in terms of the ramifications for other filesharing sites.

Their bravado and cockiness may well have amused many kids, but judges aren't kids. they aren't easily fooled and they aren't exactly renowned for their sense of humour.

The only people who stand to gain from this, apart from the lawyers, will be the likes of Rapidshare and newsgroups. A troubling day in the history of filesharing, and a day when the name "The Pirate Bay" will go down in history as probably having precipitated the beginning of the end.

It would be amusing if it weren't so tragic.

[iaTa]

Dan, what a brilliant post. It's not very often I read something like that on a forum. Superb summary and so very true unfortunately. The only thing I don't agree on is your view that this will mean an end to file sharers using the BT protocol. Surely by it's very design that just won't happen.

[TVC_H4U]

Their bravado and cockiness may well have amused many kids, but judges aren't kids. they aren't easily fooled and they aren't exactly renowned for their sense of humour.

The only people who stand to gain from this, apart from the lawyers, will be the likes of Rapidshare and newsgroups. A troubling day in the history of filesharing, and a day when the name "The Pirate Bay" will go down in history as probably having precipitated the beginning of the end.

It would be amusing if it weren't so tragic. Great post, Can I send this off to news papers and get paid for it?

Their "bravado and cockiness" definitely amused me, anyone standing up to large corporations always makes me smile. If their going to succeed or not. I am shocked that MPAA would go after TPB rather than, as you mentioned Rapidshare which has a cult around the file uploading and much easier to understand and sometimes faster to download.

As for TPB not being like google. Their are too many similarities, Design, Ease of Use.
TPB is more user generated.
Google does not have trackers but it does have Google Cache, it also hosts copyright videos on youtube, hosts copyright books on google book search, Copyright images on Picasa, makes money trough other peoples content (blogger, videos), stores copyright material on gmail.
The only difference is Google is in USA and listens to legal actions from copyright owners as they should as they host the content. TPB does not listen to copyright actions from USA as (they think) it does not apply in Sweden and they do not host the content.

Yes TBP is bad, No doubt, but their comparison to google has large similarities. Also trackers are legal, its their are sometimes used for which is.
Except TPB skirts around the law, google bows to the law. (as they should)

[TVC_Admin]

Interesting comments.

Because of The Pirate Bay's huge control over trackers - probably around a third of those actually operating - the probable loss of such a high percentage of trackers could have catastrophic consequences to filesharing. That and the fact that a large number of smaller filesharing sites are hosted at PRQ, the data centre owned by TPB.

On the Google comparisons, the biggest single difference between them and TPB is that Google does not operate with any evidence of mens rea, the standard common law test of criminal intent. Whilst Google cache and do link to content, they do not actually upload and/or store that content, and their predominant use is lawful, whilst responding correctly to take down notices.

Bottom line, these four did the crime, now they must do the time, but they have made it a lot harder for others to fill their shoes. And ultimately, it pains me to say that this is exactly what the copyright enforcement industry have been waiting for and the last thing that exponents of filesharing need.

[TVC_H4U]

Bottom line, these four did the crime, now they must do the time
This is true in the UK/USA , in Sweden we will see. I doubt, even though it looks like it now, they will end up locked up.

[cric2k]

TPB's downfall was simply their blazant immature response to requests to take down trackers.

They could have went the Youtube route and provided content providers an easy mechanism to remove their content... and gave users just as easy a route to stick the stuff straight back up up again!

[Smasher]

They could have went the Youtube route and provided content providers an easy mechanism to remove their content... and gave users just as easy a route to stick the stuff straight back up up again!

That used to be the case but nowadays YouTube seems able to 'recognise' uploaded content - after the heavy snowfall a few months ago I took some pics and videos to upload... I put the pictures to the soundtrack "Someday - Nickelback" and it was automatically flagged up as a breach of copyright and muted.

I then tested it (educational purposes only!!) by uploading a short Family Guy clip and that too was identified as containing Fox content and removed.

[TVC_NickUK]

Yes this is true. Youtube is coming wiser, I listen to quite a bit of music on Youtube. I know you are supposed to pay for music and I do. However if there is a certain track somebody has told me about over ventrilo/teamspeak I jump right over to Youtube, however you cannot do that now on all music as a lot of the Artist's/Record Company's in the UK have said no we don't want out copyrighted material on there so now we cannot listen to music on Youtube so I use other video sites for music.

However Youtube is a great source for information and Tutorials when I need to look something up for an installation of something I will usually pop over. I know it is usually some kid with the highest voice I have ever heard in my life however you get used to that and are able to install or do what you need. *I am not saying I don't like the kids with real high voices they have the courage to show others how to do something they may have problems with.*

[tacoben]

I have used youtube to help me with learning the Accordian and Kniitting.

Some tutorials are better than others so it is worth checking a few out to find one that suits you.

[dinch]

I have used youtube to help me with learning the Accordian and Kniitting.

Am I the only one who visualised tacoben doing both at the same time? :)

[tacoben]

I will admit to knitting and watching TVC at the same time.

Back to subject. When TVC goes into europe which is essentially the plan once the legislation is in place won't that affect some of the other torrent sites that at present provide English television.
Some of which however illegal do act in a responsible and professional manner compared to TPB. My thinking is it would be nice to use these peoples expertise and bring them in out of the cold. When TVC is in europe it will defintely need to have some hardware actually in other countries to provide a good quality service.

[breadfan]

Back on topic http://www.fantasygif.it/Smiles/Mini%20Smiles/icon_pee.gif

Top ten TPB put downs here (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/04/21/top-ten-pirate-bay-putdowns/) and BT blocks TPB access here (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/251609/bt-blocks-off-pirate-bay.html).

[tacoben]

It is not a good thing when you start having a voluntary code for blocking websites. Its the same as the censorship in China.

I am sure BT users are still getting access the many other porn mongers out there. TBP did not care about the content it hosted but it was still a matter of choice what you downloaded.

[TVC_Admin]

Proxy access?

Given BT's attitude to Phorm I rather thank they have no right to be adopting a high moral position when it comes to people's choice

[sam3]

An update:

biased trial judge in the Pirate Bay case

MaulerOfEmotards sends along an in-depth followup, from the Swedish press, of our discussion the other day about the biased trial judge in the Pirate Bay case. "The turmoil concerns Tomas Norström, the presiding judge of The Pirate Bay trial, who is suspected of bias after reports surfaced of affiliation with copyright protection organizations. For this he has been reported to the appeals court. The circus around the judge is currently focused on three points. First, his personal affiliation with at least four copyright protection organizations, a state the potential bias of which he himself fails to see and refuses to admit. Secondly, Swedish trials use a system of several lay assessors to supervise the presiding judge. One of these, a member of an artists' interest organization, was forced by Mr. Norström to resign from the trial for potential bias. The judge's failure to see the obvious contradiction in this (translation) casts doubts on his suitability and competence. Thirdly, according to professor of judicial sociology Håkan Hydén,the judge has inappropriately 'duped and influenced the lay assessors' during the trial: 'a judge that has decided that "this is something we can't allow" has little problem finding legal arguments that are difficult for assisting lay assessors to counter.'"

[tacoben]

I wonder why the Judge did not own up at the beginning.

I have noticed that people like aXXo and klaxxon seem to be on holiday at the moment. However FXG is still going strong. Maybe the former have reached the age of 18.

[breadfan]

There's still NOiR, iAPULA, DEViSE, ORC, NoGRP and others...

[TVC_Admin]

To be perfectly honest, most people in the legal profession (and I speak as one) have some sort of contact with one side or another, and I agree that the judge should have declared an interest, but it is stretching things beyond belief to suggest that his judgement was biased in any way. It's just another childish red herring, another cry of "cheat" from losers who didn't stand a chance - not because of systematic "bias" but because they were as guilty as hell. They've done the crime, now they have to do the time.

The judge didn't plant the drugs that were found in the posession of one of the defendants, he didn't mock the take down requests that were sent to him, he didn't set up trackers, sell advertising, solicit donations from gullible users on the pretext that he was going to buy Sealand, he didn't set up hidden accounts in the names of nominees or deal with shady underworld characters such as Oded Daniel. And he didn't set up trackers, tell people how to use them or make himself around $3.6M in net proceeds from illegal commercial filesharing activities, either.

Perhaps instead of reading other people's (biased) commentaries, it might helpful if people read the judgement for themselves before believing the drivel on certain pro-filesharing sites. If the facts interest you, you can find them HERE (http://www.ifpi.org/content/library/Pirate-Bay-verdict-English-translation.pdf). If people want to join in the chorus of "they were set up" or "it isn't fair", think for a moment of the people they have robbed blind, especially their own supporters every time they passed around the hat. What were they doing with it all? There's only so much cocaine you can snort off your keyboard!

TPB have attracted the worst kind of attention and done everyone a great disservice by giving the copyright barons a stick to beat everyone else with. They have proved the stereotype of pirates as drug using semi literate idiots stealing from the content creator at the same time as stealing from their users ("donations") for the sole purpose of making $ by the millions.

By all means support filesharing (which I do both professionally and personally) but let's not turn TPB into saints, they were moronic drug abusing crooks and have done more harm to filesharing at a single stroke than the MPAA, the RIAA, BREIN or the IFPI have managed to do in years. They are and always have been a lost cause

/rant over :)

[TVC_H4U]

If he is a anti-copyright supporter imo his judgement was biased and unprofessional/unacceptable that he did not declare his one sided view. Its irrelevant anyway they get new judges next plenty of them.

drugs are bad, take down notices where in USA law not Swedish, trackers are not illegal, advertising on a "search engine" is not illgeal, soliciting donations from gullible users is nothing more than funny. $3.6m? They claim they have no money.

If TPB gets taken down properly by the law, Its likely that we will all be massively effected. Possibly have to go back to the networks/movie studios mercy.. Or will the snide dvd man get back in business?

[TVC_Admin]

Saying he personally sympathised with the copyright enforcers is a far cry from allowing that to influence his judgement. For example, should a judge be prevented from making a judgement in a burglary case just because someone he socialises with was once burgled?

His objectivity will be, and deserves to be, carefully scrutinised. As with all judgements, it will be. From what I have read, and I have had to analyse many judgements in my 25 years since qualifying as a lawyer, I think this judgement was well balanced and will withstand deep scrutiny.

With respect, a tracker is like a kitchen knife. The object is not illegal, but the use to which it is put can be. A tracker used predominantly for the dissemination of copyright material is, in itself, illegal.

The comparison with Google doesn't stand scrutiny. Google have predominantly lawful use. They may list, for example, a link to "The Anarchist's Cookbook", but in the context of the whole, such linking is diminutive. TPB indexes a miniscule amount of non infringing material, if any, and they refuse to comply with internationally recoignised take down notice.

The issue about US law not applying outside of the US is a mantra I have sung for years. But given that international law has been established in the form of a treaty, WIPO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIPO), and given Sweden is a signatory to that treaty and is subject also to Eu copyright law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EU_Copyright_Directive), an American take down or DMCA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA)notice is every bit as legally enforceable as a Swedish one

The reason why these morons were tried as a team is that they were all conspirators in the very same crime and partners in the very same business in whose very name these crimes were committed. The judge has spoken, TPB had their day in court, they lost, they're criminals, justice has been done, live with it.

The issue of begging money because TPB claimed to be broke and they "needed" to buy Sealand - when they were not broke and certainly had no intention of buying something that was not even up for sale - is an out and out act of criminal deception. Cheating the content providers is one thing, stealing from your own users is more despicable than humerous

Knowing the torrent community from the inside, so to speak, I feel that the judge's estimation of $3.6M in profit for TPB was extremely conservative. In my opinion, so was the 12 month custodial sentence these clowns received.

And if they have hidden the money so well it cannot (easily) be found, I suspect that the scam banks they've hidden it in will be long gone before these idiots have completed their sentence. Presumably, so will ownership of the pirate bay domain, half of PRQ and the sites that sheltered there, under the Swedish equivalent of the Proceeds of Crime Act.

In the final analysis, what good have these people done to filesharing and were their motives altrusitic?

[TVC_H4U]

Your comparison between burgary is significantly different, as their is passed cases and standard law. TPB was fighting for what is the first case, the judge has already thought about the situation and previously joined copyright groups (and chairs one i believe). His position in these group's would be tangible if he let TPB of the hook. TPB was also fighting that they had not committed any copyright theft and their activities where lawful. Which their lawyers allegedly previously told them it was, would be the same as burglers in court saying "its ok to rob a bank"

In my opinion due to the Judge's participation in these groups, the large press coverage and the effect on the WWW that the judgement has. TPB team were guilty before the trail. If it was a different judge i wouldn't be optimistic that the outcome would be different, but it would have had a significant effect on the trial.

Torrents can be used for dissemination of copyright Similar to google with a simple search term it can be illegal (http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=intitle%3A%22warez%22+Microsoft&btnG=Search&meta=).
You know where to look for legal or illegal torrent sites, or know what to type for legal or illegal google searches.
Trackers are legal, the BBC runs one and the BBC has even used torrents (illegal) to restore the shows they once lost due to a fire.
Trackers can also be Legal and be abused for illegal purposes this happened to a website I use (http://www.webtvwire.com/mediadefender-denial-of-service-attack-against-revision3-open-bittorrent-tracker/).

As far as I know the WIPO is voluntarily and not law, its to promote the protection of IP not to introduce a set of laws that each country signs. Maybe i misread. I have read about the WIPO before as they do not support open sorce which is a major issue to me. Take down notices are also not law, its a document of pressure sent by organisations in an attempt to get someone to remove a data by sending them an email/peace of paper. Like any signed peace of paper with a request it can be used in a court to show they where uncooperative.

If gullible people want to donate to a group for an island that was not for sale, and has been in the same family before the dawn of pirate radios. Its up to them, personally I think it was an attempt at increasing funding and not at all for the island. It was primary a way of getting people to donate without TPB saying they made money from other persons Intellectual Property.


what good have these people done to filesharing and were their motives altrusitic?
The PirateBay has assisted significantly in the development of bitorrent technology the backend and user software. I guess TPB was like Robin Hood, altruistic to the poor not to the large corporations that claim they where largely effected.

[simmo2001]

Biased trial judge in the Pirate Bay case, Warner studios hireing the head of the police task force that was geting info ready to try and take them down and other under handed things.

Now as I see it TPB was not braking any law of there land as trackers and torrents are legal and yes if you google <some move/tv show/game/song/app> torrent you get links to the TPB and other sites and google are not forced to remove the links to such sites?

Google must be hoping the MPAA and others don't go after them next.

As the BBC owns the rights to the programs using (illegal) torrents could be seen as legal.

[breadfan]

More here (http://www.thelocal.se/19028/20090423/)
----------------------

[TVC_Admin]

The PirateBay has assisted significantly in the development of bitorrent technology the backend and user software.

I rather thought Bram Cohen invented the bittorrent protocol. As far as I can remember, plenty of people were doing a better job that TPB years before they skinned up their first joints, and I can think of nothing novel, unique or innovatory about their activities save the fact that their actions have jeopardised the future of filesharing for everyone and they have become obscenely wealthy as a consequence.


I guess TPB was like Robin Hood, altruistic to the poor not to the large corporations that claim they where largely effected.

Wasn't Robin Hood a fictional character? Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he rob the rich to give to the poor, not rob the rich, rob the poor and then keep it all for himself?

The WIPO treaty may indeed be a voluntary agreement, but the EUCD is not. It imposes certain burdens on all member states of Europe, including full compliance with the WIPO Treaty of 1996. It is law in the UK, it is law in Sweden and all other EU states. The USA is also a signatory to WIPO and, under the terms of 17 USC, has identical stipulations in place regarding the imposition of what they call DMCA (or "take down") notices.

As for the judge's other "interests", we don't exactly have anything authoritative on which to base the presumption that a) this is true b) that it effected his judgement or c) that this amounted to anything other than an interest in the issue of copyright in general and the internet specifically.

Of course, we do have the wild assertions of a group of convicted criminals who somehow neglected to mention that a key member of their group had also been charged with being in possession of narcotics. These are the same people who claim to have no money left. Yeah, riggght!

It is also an interesting fact that TPB knew who the judge was going to be long before the trial, and therefore presumably knew of his background. Interesting that they only raise this after they have been sentenced.

As far as I know, Google have a predominantly legal purpose, they do comply with take down notices (I have issued several against them in my professional capacity) and they only hold or cache a passive representation of the indexed site's content, not tell people how to upload files to trackers that they own in fake names. I can think of several good legal distinctions. But there again, I'm only a qualified lawyer with 25 years experience!

As far as ripping off their own users is concerned, I rather thought that people donated money for TPB to set themselves up at Sealand, and not to fund their drug habits. Obviously I misjudged the situation or misread their propaganda (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/12/pirate_bay_buys_island/)

The law has spoken, TPB has been operated by criminals for personal gain. There is zero comparison between them and Google, the least of which being that the latter is perfectly lawful.

@simmo2001: Do you really think that TVC is acting unlawfully? I suggest you read our FAQ before making bald statements like that.

[simmo2001]

@simmo2001: Do you really think that TVC is acting unlawfully? I suggest you read our FAQ before making bald statements like that.

:~ Hmmm Could you point me to where you think I'm saying TVC is acting unlawfully and why? as I talked about TPB, google and the BBC using torrents to recover shows lost in a fire.

I'm finding it hard to spot where I'm saying that TVC is acting outside UK TV laws or any other law and would like to aplogise if thats how it looks.

I've read the FAQ was the 1st thing I did and do with any site.

[TVC_H4U]

simmo2001, Daniel must have misread the post. He is passionate about law ;)


As the BBC owns the rights to the programs using (illegal) torrents could be seen as legal.This is true if you own a copy then you can download, allegedly.

Bram Cohen did invented the bit torrent protocol, Correct me if im wrong, but the servers behind TPB are unique and have introduced new things to the game such as IPv6 support. Without warez i dbout the development of BitTorrent Client's would have the features they have today, or even as many/competition their is today.

The press also knew who the judge were, why did notthey bring the story to our attention before the trial. The same reason TPB dident (if they were aware) its more beneficial now than it would have been then.

The judge isn't "allegedly" part of these groups no more, he is on the board of Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (www.sfir.se), news tells me his name is on the website.
-----
TPB going down will have a large effect on the internet, it wont change my life i don't think at all.
Google going off-line would be devastating, so less comparing them from now on. he he

---

/edit ... Google today Blacklisted uTorrent from their custom search (http://torrentfreak.com/google-custom-search-cuts-utorrent-off-090430/).

[tacoben]

Normally taking cocain is better on a flat surface. If the boys from TPB were snorting from their keyboards no wonder they needed extra funds.:)

It does not really matter what involvement the Judge had with the industry I also doubt he would have been unduely biased. No one can really say these guys were inocent. The made money from imoral earnings in the same way as pimps do.

[RochdaleRed]

Easy.......take the risks face the consequences

Cheers

RR

[breadfan]

Anakata; one of the Piratebay's cofounders, has started his own revenge on the law firm that opposed piracy in thepiratebay's trial. "Internet-Avgift" (In english "internet fee"). His site has encouraged alot of people to send alot of money to Danowsky's law firm. The trick that makes this damaging to the law firm is that the money must be sent in extremely small increments so that the cost of handling it is more so than the amount recieved. This is the worlds first "Distributed Denial of Dollars attack" or ddo$ . More on this story here (http://www.blogpirate.org/2009/05/10/pirate-bay-founder-crafts-distributed-denial-of-dollars-attack/).

[TVC_H4U]

Interesting tactic, the bank will work with them though to lower charges, or reject/collate all payments under a certain amount until it all dies down.

I do disagree with what they are doing, the law firm has represented a client. They have done nothing wrong. Everybody deserves a lawyer to represent them, and a law firm to turn down big named clients like these would be stupid.

[TVC_NickUK]

I see they are going for a re-trial :O

Well apparently some of the higher up law people were ANTI-Piracy and i think not 100% sure not near 50% sure but i think the judge was in the Anti-Piracy so they put it down to Bias and they might be getting a re-trial :O

How lucky for TPB and how un-lucky for the Anti-P2P that they are going to have to wait quite a few months/years more.

[TVC_H4U]

How lucky for TPB and how un-lucky for the Anti-P2P that they are going to have to wait quite a few months/years more.
True, but anti-p2p are already using this case to shut down many other websites in Amsterdam. Hosts are giving up and the web masters are, some crazy stats.