Piratebay sentenced to 1 year in prison

[Peo]

It got official today. The movie industry and the music industry are no doubt celebrating a first win today.

Piratebay owners need to pay 30 million SEK (roughly 4 million dollars) and spend 1 year in prison. They will appeal this decision though.

Read more about it here (http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/musik/the-pirate-bay-sentenced-to-one-year-in-prison-1.846915)

[hamster]

Can't say I didn't see this coming. The excuse of "We don't host any files on our server" wouldn't have lasted much longer.

[Dynash]

Damn. Ah well, bring on the appeal.

[Peo]

One of the guys who got the jail sentence today responded with this video (http://bambuser.com/channel/Spectrial/broadcast/114322) and part 2 (http://bambuser.com/channel/Spectrial/broadcast/114322). "Thanks Hollywood!"

5 minutes in it starts in english.

[[JSH]John]

I didn't expect them to all get a jail sentence. I also wonder how the press found out about the decision before they even went into court.

[Peo]

First ever verdict to be announced on Twitter I guess...

It's one of the highest amounts anyone has been sentenced to pay by a court in Sweden.

Someone compared it to other crimes:

Stealing: 0-5,000 kr
Threat: 0-20,000 kr
Robbery: 0-50,000 kr
Rape: 75,000 kr
Murder attempt: 100,000 kr

Copy movies: 31,000,000 kr

[Dynash]

I don't understand how, after all these years they've been untouchable, then all of a sudden they get prosecuted for it? Are they taking any action agaisnt other torrent trackers like ISOHunt? Or is this just a "We take piracy seriously" kindof stunt?

[Jordan Mclay]

Agreed Dynash, its a case of tpb being bigger than the rest it'l attract far more media attention putting out the signal to the other sites that no-body is untouchable.

[TSO]

Pretty sad. :(

[GlennBeforeTime]

Yeah, I couldn't see this happening...

But what doesn't make sense is, that don't actually store these files, nor do these files ever actually pass through their servers. They never have contact with these files, so how can they breach copyright or even be an organized crime syndicate lol.

[Dynash]

Apprently they were prosecuted for making money from advertisements. Even though they don't actually profit from TPB, they just break even as they have said themselves many times. So they weren't being sued or arrested for the copyright material being shared, but because they have adverts.

[GlennBeforeTime]

That's even more stupid.

[stonerocket]

1 year, probably do 6 months! If it was in the US would probably get guantanamo bay.

[Conscript]

Even if they themselves don't participate in criminal activity their website certainly enables others to commit crimes. It's not exactly a case of "well should stores be prosecuted for selling bullets" kind of thing either because they knowingly index copyrighted material on their site and unlike things like bullets (which can be used for self-defense, hunting, etc.), there is no other purpose or use for the torrents they index other than to violate copyright law.

The better analogy here is someone who harbors fugitives fully knowing they are fugitives. Yes, its not illegal to let someone stay in your house, but if you KNOW (or in legal terms a "reasonable person would know") that they are criminals wanted by the authorities, then it IS illegal to hide them or not report them. No one can tell me that the owners of the pirate bay had no idea that people were using their website to break the law en masse while taking no action to stop them or report them.

It'd be different if they took some measures to ensure that copyrighted materials were expunged or blocked from their system (even a half-hearted effort just for show and a possible defense of "we are doing everything we could") but really the only purpose for their website to exist is to pirate copyrighted material (and I'd venture to say 99% of their traffic or of the traffic that results from someone visiting their website is for piracy) so any such effort would also instantly sink their popularity.

This whole thing of well technically they aren't the ones pirating its just nearly if not everyone who visits their website is just about as silly as an excuse as the old Warez sites (remember those?) using the disclaimer of "its for educational purposes only" to try to avoid legal troubles.

Let's face it, no matter what you think about piracy it is illegal. While the recording industry has gone after individuals, most of the risk and danger is going to be in being a big shot in the piracy community. They stuck their necks out by using real names and identities to establish accounts and run the place, as well as making public appearances, etc. and now they got caught up. I think they got lucky they only got 1 year. They will probably be able to skip out on the fine if they are unable to pay. It will most likely be settled for pennies on the dollar behind the scenes over time.

The lesson here is if you run a website whose de-facto sole purpose is to enable millions of people to commit a crime then you will be tracked down and punished.

[GlennBeforeTime]

Even if they themselves don't participate in criminal activity their website certainly enables others to commit crimes. It's not exactly a case of "well should stores be prosecuted for selling bullets" kind of thing either because they knowingly index copyrighted material on their site and unlike things like bullets (which can be used for self-defense, hunting, etc.), there is no other purpose or use for the torrents they index other than to violate copyright law.

The better analogy here is someone who harbors fugitives fully knowing they are fugitives. Yes, its not illegal to let someone stay in your house, but if you KNOW (or in legal terms a "reasonable person would know") that they are criminals wanted by the authorities, then it IS illegal to hide them or not report them. No one can tell me that the owners of the pirate bay had no idea that people were using their website to break the law en masse while taking no action to stop them or report them.

It'd be different if they took some measures to ensure that copyrighted materials were expunged or blocked from their system (even a half-hearted effort just for show and a possible defense of "we are doing everything we could") but really the only purpose for their website to exist is to pirate copyrighted material (and I'd venture to say 99% of their traffic or of the traffic that results from someone visiting their website is for piracy) so any such effort would also instantly sink their popularity.

This whole thing of well technically they aren't the ones pirating its just nearly if not everyone who visits their website is just about as silly as an excuse as the old Warez sites (remember those?) using the disclaimer of "its for educational purposes only" to try to avoid legal troubles.

Let's face it, no matter what you think about piracy it is illegal. While the recording industry has gone after individuals, most of the risk and danger is going to be in being a big shot in the piracy community. They stuck their necks out by using real names and identities to establish accounts and run the place, as well as making public appearances, etc. and now they got caught up. I think they got lucky they only got 1 year. They will probably be able to skip out on the fine if they are unable to pay. It will most likely be settled for pennies on the dollar behind the scenes over time.

The lesson here is if you run a website whose de-facto sole purpose is to enable millions of people to commit a crime then you will be tracked down and punished.

Damn your post was long... :fangel:

Still sucks though. Peo, you'd better remove your pictures of the Swedish netball team from your wall... They may think you stole their image ;)

[Dan]

Serves them right to be honest.

[Dynash]

They only managed to now be prosecuted because the Sweedish government just passed an anti-piracy law. If TPB had time to move their servers out of Sweeden, they'd be untouchable once again.

[Peo]

I beleive the servers have already been located outside of Sweden for some time now. The new Ipred law passed by the government is not directly linked to this verdict. Ipred is a law focused on the end user.

[[JSH]John]

Are they keeping the website up after being sued and jailed? It still seems to work and it doesn't seem like they have any intentions of taking it down.

[Peo]

From what I understand the site will continue to be up, atleast until the highest court have given their verdict or denied an appeal. The music industry tried to block the site after this verdict. No swedish ISP have blocked them yet and it won't happen until there is a final verdict. This might take a couple of years...

I don't support or oppose them, but I do find the whole discussion interesting since google and frankly a lot of sites link to torrent files and make it easy to search for such material.

[Dynash]

It should stay up, the case from what I now get is agaisnt the owners, and not the site itself, since they're still legally operating. As Peo said, give it time. They will try and take it offline ASAP.

[Peo]

Breaking news...

Looks like the judge wasn't impartial and there might be a retrial.

It turns out he is actively working for the same organizations as the prosecutors, several swedish copyright related organizations.

[GlennBeforeTime]

Breaking news...

Looks like the judge wasn't impartial and there might be a retrial.

It turns out he is actively working for the same organizations as the prosecutors, several swedish copyright related organizations.

Oh Zing!

There might be hope yet!