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Prosecutor Announces Charges Against Pirate Bay
paulraps writes "Almost a year after a police raid on the Pirate Bay's servers, a Swedish prosecutor has announced that he intends to press charges against the individuals behind the file-sharing giant. They will be prosecuted for various breaches of copyright law, reports The Local. But a Pirate Bay spokesman was defiant, saying, 'I think they feel they have to do it. It would look bad otherwise, since they had 20 to 30 police officers involved in the raid.'"
...to be logged by you.
I hope they have to walk the plank!
If they are going to press charges, why is the pirate bay still up? Shouldn't the first step be to shut it down?
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
Calling it "Pirate Bay" was just asking for lawsuits.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Almost a year after a police raid on the Pirate Bay's servers, a Swedish prosecutor has announced that he intends to press charges against the individuals behind the file-sharing giant.
So if the charges are thrown out because there is no real law in Sweden precluding their activities, could they sue the prosecutor for malicious prosecution, or attempt to get him disbarred (much like the prosecutor in the Duke rape case)?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
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This is what happens when you take to a life of crime on the high seas!
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
FTA:"Whatever the outcome, we will continue. If we are outlawed in Sweden we will continue elsewhere. There will be no downtime," said Andersson.
Ok, I'm just thinking here, but please bear with me. Lets imagine that thePirateBay does have to "continue elsewhere". And for the sake of argument, lets imagine that "elsewhere" is from a communications satellite.
I know this is ridiculous, but really - perhaps in 10 to 15 years launch costs will drop enough to allow private web servers to be launched. Again, just bear with me please.
Let us further imagine that after launch thePirateBay relinquishes control of this orbiting tracker to the community at large, such that it's owned by no one, but maintained by many.
Who would then be prosecuted? By which countries laws?
Read my Very Short "Stories"
I've used TPD, we all have. However, you really cannot argue that they aren't facilitating the trade of copywritten media. If I build a building and call it "Thieves Depot" and intentionally provide an area for thieves to trade their ill-gotten wares, I'm helping their cause. /what is this NNTP jazz.... //!holy! NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG!
NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
Another 3 or 4 groups will form from the leftovers. Happens when a big company goes down. The scapegoat goes to jail, and the ones who remain free start anew. From the ashes of the Pirate Bay I foresee, in the rare event that the lawsuits go far, "The Ninja Village" where stealth and privacy are first.
Give Kashyyyk back to the Wookies
While this case may well end up bad for TPB (unless they can show that the MPAA was involved) it won't stop the next group from starting a TPB-like service. It will take more money than its worth to keep shutting down copyright infringement systems and people who use them.
In the end, DRM does not work, won't work. What the entertainment industries need to do is come up with a better product, better pricing, or both. They are trying to sell content to an audience that has about a 16 second attention span, and they haven't really done anything to deserve that full 16 seconds never mind something to convince people to spend their money in the way that the **AA wants them to. Despite any legislation that might be enacted or in place now, people will keep doing what they are doing. Until the entertainment industry changes their business plan the only thing that they have to look forward to is more court time and cost, more loss of face to the public, ever decreasing revenues.
Whether that is fair or not is now a moot point. It's happening, and all the **AAs of the world seem to be doing is fanning the flames that are lapping at the foundations of their business. There have been a few positive changes so far, but that is far outweighed by the harm they are doing to their own businesses. IWaM(tm) won't ever work, it's a suckers game, not much better for the player than 3 card monty. Sure, TPB might be in for some 'rough seas' in the coming months, but while everyone is busy with that case, more file sharing will continue unabated. Until the entertainment industries learn that they are behaving very foolishly and get on with creating real value products to earn revenue with, they will continue to burn bridges with the public, their customers, and their shareholders.
Good luck to them, they are going to need it to avoid having to learn the 'did you want large fries with that' sentence.
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
If they had named it Liberation Cove or Freedom Files I'm sure their would be none of this nonsense.
Personally, I think FSIAS would have been better...File Sharing Industry Association of Sweden.
No, you don't get your TV shows from them, as Pirate Bay is "only" a bittorrent tracker. It would be like saying you get all your take-way food from the yellow pages.
Note to self: get a sig.
... Ninjas are far, far superior. No silly "Bays" or other fixed geographical features in which we'd be ID'd, fixed, and killed. Ninjas are everywhere, and nowhere. Ninjas use USENET, FTP, telnet, and very unpopular P2P protocols. You never know if someone next to you is a Ninja... until it is too late.
Science never settles, never rests.
This isn't a lawsuit.
It is a criminal charge launched by a prosecutor that only 6 months before the raid said that the Pirate Bay didn't violated any criminal law.
Then, he was called to a meeting with the justice minister and suddenly he orders a raid on the Pirate Bay. A coincidence? I think not.
Since it is illegal for a minister in Sweden to make such orders, it would have been nice to see the justice minster explain this for the parliament committee that handles such suspicions. However, whom is chairman of this committee now? Yes, the former justice minister...
There are various (at least supposedly) independent authorities you can complain to if you've been wrongfully prosecuted. I have no idea what the success rate of such complaints is, but the option is there.
HAND.
I always enjoy reading stuff like this. They raid the data center of TPB and take all the servers even if they weren't related to the torrent site. This caused a lot of grief and promoting it as a victory against illegal downloading. But really how long was TPB down for? Two or Three days at the most and now they likely have a few backup sites ready to go live if they try to take them down again. Now fast-forward a year from then and they are only now wanting to press charges, give me a break. All they are doing now is going to waste money to say "Hey, look **AA, we are actually doing something about the problem!" but realistically lets call this what it really is, a dog and pony show.
The prosecutor and reps from the Swedish police were invited to Washington DC (and they went there (10 persons) except for this very prosecutor that thought it would look funny if he did) just a month or so before the raid. In Washington they went to US Department of State, US Copyright Office, US Department of Commerce, US Patent and Trademark Office, FBI and some other people.
Politicals messing with the justice system is highly illegal in Sweden.
They cannot "contribute/bribe/whatever you call it" prosecutors to take up certain cases.
However, it has actually already been suggested that american political forces may have influenced some Swedish polticians who then may have suggested that some procecutor should take a look at TPB. This made the headlines because of the legal implications if it is true.
But how do you prove it?
Maybe I'm wrong, but I get the impression that Slashdot, and the majority of its readers, are on the side of the Pirate Bay. I know Digg is--it's full of high school age readers who do nothing but download music and games all day while bashing the RIAA to justify it. But why do so many Slashdotters seem to be in favor of ripping off artists, programmers, writers, directors, and so forth? All I ever see in response are lame critiques of copyright law (especially since the GPL relies on copyright law) or more bashing of the RIAA ("The RIAA made me do it!").
Am I alone in actually paying the programmers, musicians, and directors for their work? Or am I outnumbered by the freeloaders who contribute nothing back to the artistic community, furthering its descent into homogenization and sequel-itis as studios are forced to rely on tried-and-tested money-makers because piracy makes risky investments not worth the cost? Haven't you guys made the connection as to why popular music today sounds the same, movies are sequels or generic snoozefests, and software is the same repackaged sports game from EA or expansion pack for the B-level game you already bought last year?
"Sufferin' succotash."
"... I don't like waiting for the show to be released on DVD."
Ah, so there not fast enough to be convient for you. At least you buy the disks when they do come out, right..right?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Whilst I certainly understand why you say that, it's sad that that is something that is said.
I'm not particularly old, I'm 24, but even in my lifetime, in the last few years since I've started taking notice of the world I've seen free speech on the internet as something that's slipped away at a worrying speed.
To get to the point, naming a site like "The Pirate Bay" doesn't necessarily infer that they're guilty of any crime. If I were to make a site with a tongue in cheek name "The gun murderers hideout" which could contain information about various guns and such should I be arrested for killing someone with a gun? The argument holds with TPB, just because they're providing materials that can potentially aid infringement doesn't mean they're necessarily guilty of a crime.
Perhaps what I find the most worrying about this change in people's view is that I wonder if perhaps the MPAA/RIAA have achieved more than we'd like to believe, with their attacks on piracy, coupled with many media outlets being incapable of correctly reporting on the issue people are beginning to give ground to the corporations who are slowly taking away our right to free speech.
For a good example of the media's misreporting see The Register's coverage of the HDDVD fiasco - they even make the mistake of suggesting it's all about piracy, it's a sad state of affairs when a site that previously understood the problem now unfortunately is part of the problem.
There is some hope however as the HDDVD key situation has proved, there's still plenty of people out there willing to fight the good fight, coupled with the RIAA's increasing amount of failures in court we're slowly pushing back.
OK A couple facts, Napster was the biggest file sharing system for music for years before it's downfall, The Pirate bay is one of the biggest torrent sites out there.
Let's see what happened after Napster, oh yeah music stopped being shared.
Except on Gnutella.
And Grokster.
And Kazaa.
And Edonkey, and Limewire, and Bearshare.
Oh and on the IRC channels where it was before and after napster, and private FTPs, and some program I remember using in college, and others.
Oh and Bittorrent. No one needed Bittorrent for music before Napster but now it's a major program for it.
Essentially when they destroyed Napster they didn't stop the file sharing they just fractured it to the point where all the shards of File sharing was split up and created 10 times the problem.
It's just an example as these lawsuit doesn't matter for us. The owners of Pirate bay will care, but in the end the destruction of that site will only create new tools and sites for everyone to use to share their warez. The MPAA needs to find substitutes for this, even Pirate bay has said that if they are sued they'll move to a country that will allow them to exist with out being accused of wrong doing. The only ones not getting this is the corporations who think litigation not innovation is the answer.
Of course, if there was no law violated by TPB, then this seizure wasn't proper - and the prosecutor would be responsible for the value of the seized equipment, lost wages, etc. So he's looking at a very big downside and the only way out is to make his prior actions fit the legal guidelines.
Even if TPB ultimately walks away from this prosecutor (as seems likely), by forcing the issue now he can postpone the inevitable day when he'll be required to reimburse those he's damaged. Much like SCO; by dragging a losing war out, you can avoid punishment.
I could classify you as a "lawful good" person who always abide by the law but unfortunately doesn't see beyond "lawful / unlawful".
The RIAA and MPAA have become somewhat an evil empire where they only care about money. They rip off the artists they hire because they're a monopoly. If an artist doesn't want to sell his soul to the RIAA and produce / sell his own music, he'll be forgotten into oblivion.
Why? Because he gets no publicity, no tours, no airtime on the radio, no nothing. Simply because he didn't want to accept to get only 0.2 cents per CD sold.
It's something called the Status quo. Regarding myself, I am against the RIAA for various reasons:
1) They're the devil incarnate for their monopolic practices
2) They don't let us record our music CD's into MP3
3) They have pushed the congress to make anything that helps 2) Illegal
4) They abuse their economic power to force OTHER COUNTRIES to adopt their twisted view of the law
5) They don't give a **** about our property when they install rootkits in our computers
6) HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN THAT THEY'RE SUING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE FOR THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS EACH?
In my personal opinion, anyone who buys RIAA-sponsored CD's is doing evil. I would rip a CD of my favorite group and deposit 1 dollar to the artists, which is much more than they get from the RIAA per disk. But guess what, that's why there are LEGAL DOWNLOAD SERVICES. Unfortunately, the revenues of these also go to the RIAA and not to the groups directly.
Or fragment the operation such that not enough of it exists in any single country to be sued in that country. Only when the distributed pieces are put back together is a valid tracker emitted.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
"The FBI defines terrorism as "the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives."
That's very interesting; let's break it down:
1. "Unlawful use of force" - Like the raids
2. "Against persons or property" - see 1
3. "intimidate or coerce a government" - That sounds like what happened to the Swedish government
4. - and a segment of their civilian population
5. "in furtherance of political or social objectives." - 5 out of 5, Johnny. Tell 'em what they win.
"majority of its readers, are on the side of the Pirate Bay"
And why shouldn't we? The industry is harassing a entity in a DIFFERENT COUNTRY for doing things that ARE LEGAL there. No different then us supporting someone's freespeech here who is being harassed by, lets say Australia. ( another recent story here )
Or do you suppprt some corporate entity enforcing their perverse ideas onto people somewhere else, and acting like they are some sort of twisted law enforcement arm?
And if you truly believe that copyright piracy really makes a dent in the obscene profits they make by shaking down and intimidating the artists, then you got your facts a bit backwards and are buying into the falsehoods being spread by the industry.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
You forgot his "educational" trip to the United States to learn how to deal with those terr^H^H^H^Hpirates. The trip took place about a month before the raid.
I hate the RIAA/MPAA as much as the next person interested in sane IP, but is it too much to ask, please quit with the inane "Yay! Go pirates! Go copyright infringers! Go!".
There seems to be an easy to spell out way to put the RIAA/MPAA out of business, and that is, REFUSE TO BUY / DOWNLOAD / USE THEIR PRODUCTS. If they get no money, they can't hire lawyers. They can't bribe politicians. In short, they cease to be loudmouthed assholes that matter and just become loudmouthed assholes without a job. The key here is to stop using RIAA/MPAA products.
Unfortunately, I hear too much of, "Yeah! I'm all about hurting the RIAA! They're thugs! Evil incarnate! I'd do anything to see them go down! Right after I download the latest [RIAA-sponsored music]! And perpetuate their popularity and hype... which is exactly what keeps the RIAA/MPAA in business..."
Most of the comments seem to indicate that 90%+ of the entertainment media out there is trash, right? Unoriginal, recycled bullshit? So put your attention and your money where your mouth is. Ditch all of your commercial songs on your iPod. Listen to indie or unsigned music. Because just like Google feeds on pageviews, the RIAA/MPAA companies feed on hype and mindshare. The rampant copyright infringement isn't hurting the RIAA/MPAA one bit from a financial standpoint. (And we all know where the heart of a multinational corp is... the pocketbook.) What it does is reinforce their impression that what they're "guarding" is VALUABLE, and what they need to do in order to increase revenue is to try to get some blackmail, er... enforcement so y'all will go buy it for $1.00 on their sponsored downloading service. (Gee... I wonder where Microsoft got their idea for their "Non-WGA, buy a discounted genuine license today!" model.)
If no one was actually downloading the latest shit-on-a-platter from Justin Timberlake or [name your regurgitated mass-market artist here], do you think the schmucks at the RIAA/MPAA would even care about teh intarWeb?
Just a thought.
Light a fire for a man and he'll be warm for a day. Light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.