Court jails Pirate Bay founders

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:39:51 GMT  <== Politics ==> 

BBC News - Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde have been convicted of copyright violation and sentenced to a year in jail and fine of $4.5 million. They intend to appeal, for years. Peter Sunde finds the conviction bizarre. And about the fine, he said:

"We can't pay and we wouldn't pay. Even if I had the money I would rather burn everything I owned, and I wouldn't even give them the ashes."

There are press conference videos at thepiratebay.org/special/2009epicwinanyhow.php, and this text:

So, the dice courts judgement is here. It was lol to read and hear, crazy verdict.

But as in all good movies, the heroes lose in the beginning but have an epic victory in the end anyhow. That's the only thing hollywood ever taught us.

ThePirateBay.org remains alive. It says on the front page:

Don't worry - we're from the internets. It's going to be alright. :-)

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Comments (2):

Slashdot discussion of the Pirate Bay verdict

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:37:19 GMT

Slashdot discussion of the Pirate Bay verdict here.

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Pirate Bay verdict could affect EU elections

Submitted by Arto Bendiken on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:50:27 GMT

Some good has already come out of this miscarriage of justice; namely, it has swelled Pirate Party membership by 50% in the first day since the verdict:

http://torrentfreak.com/swedes-demonstrate-against-pirate-bay-verdict-090418/

http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-party-membership-surges-following-pirate-bay-verdict-090417/

Sweden's Pirate Party is now bigger than the Green Party, 5th largest overall, and 1st in the youth demographics in the country. (And since the political system there isn't locked into two-party equilibrium, the party can actually affect change with demographics like these.)

Furthermore, per earlier surveys more than half of all Swedish men under 30 were already considering voting for the Pirate Party in the next European Parliament elections. The verdict will likely boost that figure:

"Christian Engström, vice-chairman of the Swedish Pirate Party said in a comment that the verdict is their ticket into the European Parliament."

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/86007/could-pirate-bay-verdict-affect-eu-elections/

Political means are still going to, ultimately, prove a waste of time and come to nought, of course, but damn if this isn't sometimes an entertaining spectator sport.

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