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Four Indicted in Pirate Bay Case
paulraps writes "Suddenly the founders of the Pirate Bay are not so hearty. The four men behind the popular file-sharing site were indicted in Sweden on Thursday on charges of being accessories to breaking copyright law. And this is more than just a shot across the bows. The prosecutor reckons that they can be hooked for 'promoting other people's copyright breaches' but there will be no walking the plank: instead, they face fines of up to $200,000 and the confiscation of all their hardware. 'The Swedish prosecutor listed dozens of works that had been downloaded through The Pirate Bay site, including The Beatles' Let It Be, Robbie Williams' Intensive Care and the movie Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire. Plaintiffs in the case include Warner, MGM, Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox Films, Sony BMG, Universal and EMI.'"
Lessee... prosecutor bribed off by MafiAA companies. Check.
Judge who authorized raids on flimsy pretenses after being bribed off by MafiAA companies. Check.
Police who did raids on flimsy pretenses after being bribed off by MafiAA companies. Check.
Corrupt MafiAA industry that ought to be put out of its misery: Check.
The interesting argument brought up is that the defendants are in this to make money, and the prosecutor says he can prove elaborate plans to split the quite hefty incomes from advertising that the Pirate Bay is raking in. While linking to copyrighted material may be legal, making money from actively enabling people copyright infringement probably is harder to sneak by the courts.
Rephrase:
The interesting argument brought up is that the bribed prosecutors and MafiAA are in this to make money by hook or by crook (preferably crook), and the defendants can prove the MafiAA have elaborate plans to split the quite hefty incomes they make using illegal tactics like price fixing while leaving the actual artists with precisely two things: Jack and Shit. While linking to copyrighted material may be legal, making money by defrauding the public, engaging in monopolistic price gouging, and fraudulently cooking the books to deny money to the artists ought to be harder to sneak by the courts.