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Prince, Village People to Sue The Pirate Bay

castrox writes to tell us that The Pirate Bay's legal concerns are continuing to grow. Prince and the Village People are planning to sue the popular torrent site with the help of the Web Sheriff law firm. John Giacobbi of Web Sheriff has also asked Swedish band ABBA to join the cause. The suit is seeking "millions of dollars" in damages, although it's still uncertain to whom the charges will be directed. The likely targets are the four Pirate Bay founders who were indicted a few weeks ago on charges of breaking copyright law. Prince has taken investigative action against The Pirate Bay in the past.

14 of 435 comments (clear)

  1. Anonymous Alternatives: e.g., Freenet 0.7 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Just as p2p sprang up when Napster went down, alternatives are springing up to take the place of 'regular' p2p and p2p sites that are under attack. Freenet 0.7 (and also 0.5) has a lot of movies, games etc. On 0.7, if you happen to have darknet 'friends' who also trade in similiar content then you're downloads should be as fast as regular p2p with the benefit of anonymity.

  2. Web Sheriff already tryed to sue... by Simon+(S2) · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... The Pirate Bay in the past. With a really hilarious response from TPB:
    White Stripes / WEB SHERIFF: email our response 2nd mail and response our fax (invoice) 3rd mail attached document We tell Faxxsheriff about our new site 4th mail our response.

    --
    I just don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die.
  3. Re:Civil vs. Criminal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Partially right. There is a civil law section of the law (which I call a formal distinction), but there are no special courts or anything like that.

    The bigger difference though, is that Swedish law has no concept of using fines as a form of punishment in it self, just as compensation for losses or emotional/physical suffering.

    Since a business entity can't claim to be "hurt" TPB can only be made to reimburse the losses suffered through their actions, and these losses has to be substantiated.

  4. Very true. But.. by emj · · Score: 3, Informative

    In Sweden it's not very usual that you get fined big amounts, so we are not talking about millions euros in fines.

  5. Re:what do they all have in common? by Dogtanian · · Score: 4, Informative

    Oh noes, the Pirate Bay is getting sued by the gheyz! Eh, you do realise that ABBA was made up of two pairs of couples (who were either engaged, married or divorced at the time the group was active)?

    Anyway, it should be noted that this guy has *tried* to involve ABBA in this. I don't see anything indicating that they have even responded yet, let alone confirmed their agreement with him. I suspect that he wins either way (even if they don't get involved, having their name connected still gets him more attention).

    Potential basis of ABBA legal action against the Pirate Bay: "I've been cheated by you since I don't know when" (thrown out due to vagueness surrounding the dates of the alleged infringments).
    --
    "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
  6. Re:Added to my list of artists to avoid by Barseflips · · Score: 3, Informative

    While I can see that Village people or Prince might need more money, I very much doubt Abba need anything. It wasn't that long ago that they turned down the offer of one billion dollars to tour again. Björn and Benny make a LOT of money from musicals, with Mamma Mia being a massive hit (it has made around USD 2 billion). Abba had a few more than "one or two hits", and many bands have covered them since. To be honest, I doubt very much if Abba care that the pirate bay is facilitating the sharing of their material. In fact, being Swedish, they're probably cheering TPB on.

  7. Re:Can you say 'Streisand effect" and mean it? by rueger · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not to quibble but...

    1 - Buggy whip maker - Yup, still around.
    2 - Horse Farrier - there are many thousands of farriers working in the US and around the world.
    5 - Gold Miner - likewise gold mining still goes on, and underground mining is still common throughout the world.
    9 - Transatlantic passenger liner captain - Um - who do you think captains the transatlantic ocean liners?.
    10 - Japanese longshoreman... And who unloads ships in Japanese ports? The ten thousand unionized dock workers? Oh right, Sailor Moon...

  8. Re:Hoist them swabies up by their own peter by PitaBred · · Score: 4, Informative

    I certainly hope you know that the word is petard and you were just making a childish penis joke. I'd rather think you childish than stupid.

  9. Re:Guess I was wrong about him by Myopic · · Score: 3, Informative

    theft implies denial of use. if you don't deny use, it's not theft.

    the doesn't mean that copyright infringement is morally right, but it does mean copyright infringement isn't theft.

  10. People still pay attention to Prince by shyberfoptik · · Score: 2, Informative

    Selling out over 140,000 tickets in 20 minutes? Playing 21 consecutive concerts in London? People pay attention to Prince.

  11. Re:Guess I was wrong about him by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 5, Informative

    However, calling this kind of behavior "theft" is not new terminology.

    I remember when I was kid (40 years ago), people who sneaked onto trains, buses, ski lifts, etc. without a ticket could be convicted of "theft of service". In fact, in law, "theft" just means obtaining something illegally, regardless of whether you are depriving someone else of it. What you are calling "theft" (i.e. taking something away from someone else) is actually called "larceny". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft.

    It's like the term "assault": in common usage, it means "to strike someone". But in legal jargon, that's called "battery", while "assault" just means to threaten.

  12. Found it for you, course by a native! by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://thepiratebay.org/search/swedish%20chef/0/99/0Here you go, elementary swedish lessons by a native

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  13. Re:I have a plan by Saint+Fnordius · · Score: 4, Informative

    You have hit upon the irony here, that Prince actually changed his name (and back again) because of draconian trademark and copy rights. He tried to fight "the Man", and now is convinced that every copy has equal value. Every unauthorised copy that exists on a hard drive or in the flash ROM, whether it's your home computer or an iPod, means one less CD sold to him. Yes, he does seem to believe the hype that each copy means a lost sale.

    But in the end, it doesn't surprise me. After all, his fight has always been not about money but control. If it weren't for performance rights being protected, he would have been successful in preventing Tom Jones and Art Of Noise from recording "Kiss". Thus it is only logical that he would hate file sharing, a medium that he cannot control.

  14. Re:Hoist them swabies up by their own peter by Ulven · · Score: 3, Informative

    As a petard is a bomb, I'm not so sure that that is the origin of the blue peter.

    To be 'hoist by your own petard' is to be blown up by your own bomb.

    So says the almighty wikipedia.