[p2p-research] Fwd: Pirate Bay file-share case starts

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Frederick [FN] Noronha * फ्रेडरिक नोरोन्या <fredericknoronha at gmail.com
>
Date: Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 3:56 PM
Subject: Pirate Bay file-share case starts
To: asia-commons at googlegroups.com



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7892073.stm

Pirate Bay file-share case starts
Gottfrid Svartholm Varg, partially obscured, and Peter Sunde
Two of the defendants argued their innocence on Sunday in a webcast

The founders of a website which carries links to unauthorised copies
of music, films and TV programmes go on trial in Sweden on charges of
copyright theft.

The Pirate Bay is the world's most high-profile file-sharing site and
is being taken to court by media firms including Sony and Warner Bros.

On Sunday, two of the four defendants said the site was "100% legal".

The men face up to two years in prison and a fine of $143,500, if convicted.

Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmsioppi and
Carl Lundstorm have portrayed themselves as digital libertarians and
believe that they cannot be prosecuted for copyright theft because
none of the content is hosted on their computer servers.

Instead, The Pirate Bay directs people to "torrent" links, which allow
file-sharing program BitTorrent to download and upload files among
potentially thousands of users.


They have already failed to take down the site once. Let them fail again
Gottfrid Warg

Mr Warg, in a webcast on Sunday, said: "What are they going to do
about it? They have already failed to take down the site once. Let
them fail again.

"It has a life without us."

John Kennedy, chairman of the International Federation of the
Phonographic Industries, representing 1,400 member record companies
worldwide, said: "The Pirate Bay has hurt creators of many different
kinds of works, from music to film, from books to TV programmes. It
has been particularly harmful in distributing copyrighted works prior
to their official release.

"This damages sales of music at the most important time of their lifecycle."

Mr Kennedy said the four men had "made substantial amounts of money"
from the site, "despite their claim to be only interested in spreading
culture for free".

On Sunday, Mr Sunde said: It does not matter if they require several
million (kronor) or one billion. We are not rich and have no money to
pay."

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M +91-9822122436 P +91-832-2409490 http://twitter.com/fn
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